Tulsa Race Massacre Victims Cemetery Search Concludes With Additional Graves Found [Update]

By Murjani Rawls, The Root

Oklahoma officials have announced they have found 17 additional unmarked graves at an excavation site in the Oaklawn Cemetery, according to CNN. This is a part of Tulsa’s ongoing effort to find the unidentified victims of 1921’s Tulsa Race massacre.

Beginning in 2018, the city of Tulsa started an extensive investigation into the massacre, which included searching for mass graves. In 1921 a violent white mob specifically targeted Tulsa’s Greenwood district, nicknamed “Black Wall Street.” More than 1,000 homes were burned to the ground and looted. While it’s estimated 300 hundred people were killed, only 26 death certificates were issued for the Black victims of the massacre, as noted by the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum. Twenty-one of them were reportedly buried in Oaklawn Cemetery.

Last year, an excavation effort at the cemetery resulted in 19 exhumations. Some of those bodies were later reburied. The additional excavation, which occurred on October 26th, resulted in finding 16 burials exposed and one partially exposed, according to Oklahoma State Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck.

In a final effort at the site on Friday, Nov. 18th, 32 additional caskets were discovered, and eight sets of remains were exhumed, as noted by the Huffington Post. Two sets of the 66 remains found in the past two years have been confirmed to have gunshot wounds. However, none have been confirmed to be victims of the massacre as of yet.

Right now, the hand excavations around the coffins are happening to determine candidates for exhumation and examination in a forensics lab. A forensics team is also on hand to take DNA samples.

Read about the excavation updates.

The Tulsa race massacre has gained attention in recent years.

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