三名幸存者1921年塔尔萨种族大屠杀现年100多岁的他周三戏剧性地呼吁立法者进行赔偿，并承认在俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨市一个以黑人为主的社区遭到一群白人暴徒袭击时发生的事情，这永远改变了他们的生活。

维奥拉·弗莱彻7岁。

“我仍然看到黑人被枪杀，黑人的尸体躺在街上。“我仍然闻到烟味，看到火，”107岁的“弗莱彻妈妈”，她被亲切地称为，用结结巴巴的声音叙述道。“我仍然看到黑人企业被烧毁。我仍然听到飞机在头顶飞过。我听到尖叫声。我每天都经历着大屠杀。我们的国家可能会忘记这段历史，但我不能。我不会，其他幸存者也不会。而我们的后代没有。”

吉姆·沃森/法新社通过盖蒂图像

维奥拉·弗莱彻，塔尔萨种族大屠杀最老的幸存者，在民权法庭作证

她和其他幸存者在众议院司法小组委员会上发言，该小组委员会正在考虑可能的法律补救措施，以补偿1921年5月31日被称为“黑华尔街”的塔尔萨格林伍德区遭到袭击近100年后的大屠杀幸存者及其后代。

弗莱彻第一次去华盛顿讲述她的故事，她说，四年级后就再也没有完成学业，因为袭击使她的家庭流离失所，而且没有受过教育，她从来没有赚过多少钱。

“将近100年来，没有人关心我们。我们和我们的历史已经被遗忘，被冲走。本届国会必须承认我们，承认我们的历史——为了美国黑人，为了美国白人，也为了所有美国人，”弗莱彻说。

吉姆·沃森/法新社通过盖蒂图像

休斯·范·埃利斯，塔尔萨种族屠杀幸存者和二战老兵，在Ci前作证

立法者，民主党人和共和党人，起立为她鼓掌。

得克萨斯州民主党众议员希拉·李庚翔是一项账单为了表彰这位百年国会议员和公开主张赔偿的人，弗莱彻在她的iPhone上录制了部分开场证词，显然是对幸存者的敬畏。李庚翔也是H.R. 40该法案正等待众议院全体表决，并将成立一个委员会研究赔偿建议。

休斯·范·埃利斯(Hughes Van Ellis)当时几个月大，现在是一名二战老兵，戴着一顶军帽，叫着“红叔叔”，他在作证时哽咽着告诉立法者，他生活在格林伍德街区的记忆中，并“想到了它可能是什么”。

“我们不是屏幕上的黑白照片。我们是血肉之躯。我当时在场。我还在这里，”他说。“我不是要求施舍。我要求被当作一等公民对待，”他补充道。

吉姆·沃森/法新社通过盖蒂图像

塔尔萨马赛幸存者休斯·范·埃利斯(左)和维奥拉·弗莱彻(右二)作证

美国国会图书馆通过法新社/盖蒂图片社，档案

塔尔萨大屠杀后，1921年6月，格林伍德附近的大火冒出滚滚浓烟

106岁的莱西·本宁菲尔德·兰德尔通过视频通话亮相，但同样引人注目。她描述说，当她的家人逃命时，看到尸体漂进阿肯色河，回忆起他们是如何没有受到官员和那些“充满仇恨”的人的保护...没有理由，除了我们是黑人。”

“我们等得太久了，我累了，”她说。“我们累了。最后，我今天请求你给我们一些安宁。请给我、我的家人和我的社区一些公正。”

幸存者及其家人去年提交了一份诉讼民主党人要求对他们称之为持续几十年的悲剧给他们和其他家庭带来的“公害”进行赔偿，他们也提出了同样的观点——个人和经济损失持续到1921年以后。

“简而言之，塔尔萨今天的种族和经济差异可以追溯到大屠杀。田纳西州民主党众议员史蒂夫·科恩(Steve Cohen)说:“在美国，塔尔萨是这个国家非裔美国人社区所发生的事情的缩影。“国会需要站出来。”

吉姆·沃森/法新社通过盖蒂图像

委员会成员听休斯·范·埃利斯，右下，塔尔萨种族屠杀幸存者

众议院司法委员会(House Judiciary Committee)主席、众议员杰里·纳德勒(Jerry Nadler)也要求他的同事们承认，这里的历史被粉饰了，称这场屠杀是“一场种族清洗行为，尽管当时已经成为全国性的新闻，但后来几十年来，这场屠杀已经从历史书上抹去了。”

在一个罕见的协议中，立法者允许百岁老人作证而不提问，路易斯安那州的共和党众议员迈克·约翰逊说，“我们没有多少百岁老人在我们的委员会作证，所以这可能是——我想说，也许我们今天可能在这里创造历史。”

在听取幸存者的意见后，立法者听取了专家们对大屠杀长期影响的意见。他们认为，执法部门不仅未能保护塔尔萨的黑人居民，而且该市的商会和保险公司——它们错误地将大屠杀描绘成一场暴乱——使社区无法恢复。

俄克拉荷马州最初记录了36例死亡，但在2001年委员会报道称死亡人数高达300人，并建议做出赔偿，李庚翔称2021年赔偿金额约为2亿美元。

在对幸存者的讲话中，她要求塔尔萨市长、共和党人G. T .拜纳姆给他们和他们的后代资源来追求他们的权利。

“现在是时候了，”她说。

100 years later, Tulsa Race Massacre survivors appeal to lawmakers: 'I hear the screams'

Three survivors of the1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, now more than 100 years old, made dramatic appeals to lawmakers Wednesday for reparations and acknowledgment of what happened to them when a white mob attacked a predominantly Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, changing their lives forever.

Viola Fletcher was 7-years old.

"I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire," 107-year-old "Mother Fletcher," as she is affectionally known, recounted in a halting voice. "I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams. I have lived through the massacre every day. Our country may forget this history, but I cannot. I will not, and other survivors do not. And our descendants do not."

She and the other survivors spoke before a House Judiciary subcommittee considering possible legal remedies to compensate massacre survivors and their descendants almost 100 years after the Greenwood District of Tulsa, known as the "Black Wall Street," was stormed on May 31, 1921.

Fletcher, who made her first trip to Washington to tell her story, never finished school beyond the fourth grade, she said, because the attack displaced her family, and without an education, she never made much money.

"No one cared about us for almost 100 years. We and our history have been forgotten, washed away. This Congress must recognize us, and our history -- for Black America, for the white Americans and for all Americans," Fletcher said.

The lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans, rose to give her a standing ovation.

Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, a co-sponsor of abillto recognize the Centennial congressionally and vocal advocate for reparations, videotaped part of Fletcher's opening testimony on her iPhone, in apparent awe of the survivor. Jackson Lee is also a co-sponsor ofH.R. 40, a bill which is awaiting a full House vote and would establish a commission to study reparation proposals.

Hughes Van Ellis, a few months old at the time, and now a World War II veteran who dons an Army hat and goes by "Uncle Red," choked up during his testimony, telling lawmakers he lives with memories of the Greenwood neighborhood and the "thought of what it could have been."

"We aren't black and white pictures on a screen. We are flesh and blood. I was there. I'm still here," he said. "I'm not asking for a handout. I'm asking to be treated like a first-class citizen," he added.

Lessie Benningfield Randle, 106, appeared via video call, but was no less dramatic. She described seeing dead bodies float into the Arkansas River as her family fled for their lives, recalling how they were not protected from officials and those who "were filled with so much hate ... for no reason except that we are Black people."

"We have waited too long, and I am tired," she said. "We are tired. Lastly, I am asking you today to give us some peace. Please give me, my family and my community some justice."

The survivors and their families last year filed alawsuitdemanding compensation for they called the ongoing "public nuisance" inflicted on them and other families for decades by the tragedy, Democrats made the same point -- that the personal and economic losses lasted well beyond 1921.

"In short, present day racial and economic disparities in Tulsa can be traced back to the massacre. In America, Tulsa is a microcosm of what has happened to the African American community in this country," Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. said. "Congress needs to step up."

Rep. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, also asked his colleagues to acknowledge that history here had been whitewashed, calling the massacre "an act of ethnic cleansing, which was subsequently wiped from the history books for many decades, despite having made national news at the time."

In a rare agreement, lawmakers allowed the centenarians to testify without asking questions, Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana saying, "we don't have many centenarians testified before our committee so this may be -- I would suggest that maybe we may be making history here today."

After hearing from the survivors, lawmakers heard from experts on the longstanding impact of the massacre. They argued that not only did law enforcement fail to protect Tulsa's Black residents but the city's chamber of commerce and insurance companies -- which falsely painted the massacre as a riot -- made it impossible for the community to recover.

The state of Oklahoma originally recorded 36 deaths, but a 2001commissionreported the number killed was a high was as high as 300 -- and recommended reparations be made, which Jackson Lee said would equal about $200 million in 2021.

Speaking to the survivors, she demanded Tulsa Mayor G. T. Bynum, a Republican, give them and their descendants the resources to pursue their claims.

"The time is now," she said.