Oldest survivor of Tulsa Race Massacre votes for Kamala Harris

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At 110 years old, Viola Ford Fletcher is the oldest known survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Today, she cast her ballot in Oklahoma for Vice President Kamala Harris, CNN reports.

“I feel good about voting. It is important to vote,” said Fletcher, who is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, voters in her state.

Fletcher, who was accompanied by her grandsons Ike Howard and Tracey Flemons, voted at a Tulsa polling site in a room named “Greenwood” — the name of the Black neighbourhood that was destroyed during the race massacre.

Greenwood, known as Black Wall Street, was the location of one of the largest moments of racial violence in US history. As many as 300 Black people were killed, and more than 1,000 homes, businesses, schools and churches were destroyed when a White mob looted and burned the district.

Lessie Benningfield Randle, the other remaining survivor of the massacre, said last week that she had cast an absentee ballot for Harris.

“I don’t know how much longer I have left. But if this is my last ballot, then I’m grateful that it’s for Kamala Harris,” Benningfield Randle, 109, said in a news release.

“I have five children and more than 20 grandbabies. VP Harris has the better chance of building the nation I want them to inherit.”

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