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One of the last known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riot dies

Posted at 3:32 PM, Mar 06, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-06 16:32:44-05

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- One of the last known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riot has died.

The daughter of Hazel Smith-Jones of Tulsa, Yolanda Mitchell, says Jones died Sunday. She was 99.

Smith-Jones was not yet 3-years-old when the May 31-June 1 riot destroyed much of a neighborhood called "Black Wall Street." She had said she remembers her family being taken to the local fairgrounds and held for two or three days before being released.

The violence began after a black man allegedly assaulted a white woman in an elevator. The number of deaths were never confirmed and vary from about three dozen to 300.

Jamaal Dyer, director of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Centennial Commission, says two known survivors are still living, one in Chicago and the other in New York.

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