One of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre died on Monday.
Hughes “Uncle Red” Van Ellis was 102, according to a family publicist.
Van Ellis was 6-months-old when his family fled a white mob that killed hundreds of Black people and decimated a thriving Oklahoma community more than a century ago, publicist Mocha Ochoa said in a statement about his death.
“He was pure joy personified,” Ochoa said in the statement. “I will miss him dearly but honored to have had the privilege to share time, space, and history with ‘Uncle Redd.’ They say when an elder dies, so does a library.”
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"I did it because I believed, in the end, America would get it right,” he said.
Van Ellis is survived by his daughters, Mallee and Muriel, and his large family, the statement said.
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