The massacre began at night on May 31, 1921. It would go on to claim some 300 people, leave some 10,000 homeless, and raze more than 1,000 residences and businesses. Telling her story to the congressional committee a century later, Fletcher spoke of the massacre in the present tense: “I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lining the street. I still smell smoke and see fire. I still see Black businesses being burnt. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams. I live through the massacre every day. Our country may forget this history. I cannot. I will not.”