Two Black American survivors of the Black Wall Street Massacre, Viola Fletcher, 107, and her brother Hughes Van Ellis, 100, arrived in Ghana this past weekend with their grandchildren at the start of a visit to connect with the motherland. Their week-long trip to Ghana is a part of a government campaign to attract more people of African descent abroad back home.
Fletcher and Ellis are from the Greenwood district in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Greenwood was devastated and terrorized by a mob of armed white people in 1921. The attack on “Black Wall Street” left 10,000 Black Americans homeless, as the district was set ablaze, leaving a vibrant and historic economy in ruins.
On Saturday, the siblings landed in Ghana’s capital and largest city, Accra, as locals greeted them at the airport, cheering ‘welcome home.’ The family is scheduled to visit historic sites from the colonial era and receive symbolic titles during traditional ceremonies. They will also be attending church on Sunday.
Diaspora African Forum, a non-profit organization, sponsored their trip along with “Our Black Truth,” a social media platform where African descendants can learn about their history.
Since Ghana declared independence in 1957, it’s played a role as a historic hub for Black Americans to visit and possibly settle long-term. W.E.B. DuBois and Maya Angelou are two famous Black Americans who have once lived in Ghana. In 2019, the Ghanaian government held the “Year of Return,” a festive program intended to encourage African diasporans to come to Ghana to invest in the country. This event was held in 2019 to commemorate 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia.
