On May 31 and June 1, 1921, Tulsa, Okla. was forever changed when what has gone down in history as one of the most significant and violent crimes in U.S. history. The Tulsa Race Massacre was an 18-hour bloodbath orchestrated by a white mob that damaged more than one thousand homes and businesses were destroyed, while credible estimates of deaths range from 50 to 300 victims. The mob targeted Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood, which had become a hub for Black businesses.
Though the Tulsa Race Massacre took hundreds of victims and robbed many Black families of their loved ones and community members, the decades that followed the attacks included multiple survivors who went on to tell what happened to them in their own words. However, as the decades and centuries have gone by, the amount of survivors has diminished.
Here’s everything to know about the Tulsa Race Massacre survivors.
Many of the Tulsa Race Massacre survivors are no longer alive.
Since the 1921 violent attacks, the Tulsa Race Massacre lost nearly all of its surviving members. According to CNN, as of November 2025, the sole survivor from the massacre is Lessie Benningfield Randle, who turned 111 that year. Randle, who goes by “Mother Randle” in her community, has remained active in the fight for Greenwood to receive justice years later…