Searching for mass graves in Tulsa's Oaklawn Cemetery

Tulsa Race Riots: In 1921, white mobs reduced Black community to rubble. The Segregated Greenwood area of Tulsa, was home to 10,000 people that included laborers, domestics, teachers, business owners, doctors and lawyers. It had its own schools and churches.

On May 31, 1921, white mobs stormed the middle-class Black district of Greenwood, including its financial hub known as Black Wall Street, burning 35 city blocks to the ground and leaving 300 dead. The tragic events which took place over two days are mostly unwritten about in American history books.

Late last year (2021), scientists led by the State of Oklahoma Archaeological Survey and using geophysical scanning equipment alerted city officials to potential areas of interest on the cemetery grounds.

View of the destruction of the Greenwood District in Tulsa after the 1921 massacre. Contributed by Greenwood Cultural Center 

Researchers dig for evidence of mass graves from 1921, Tulsa massacre

Historians, archaeologists and work crews returned to a Tulsa, Oklahoma, cemetery for a second day Tuesday, digging in search of mass graves from the Tulsa Race Massacre nearly 100 years ago.

The historic excavation is taking place at Oaklawn Cemetery, which is city-owned property and the known final resting place for some massacre victims who were given a proper burial after one of the most brutal and notorious racial episodes in U.S. history.

Some of the nation’s foremost researchers will be on the grounds for the next three to six days, seeking evidence that many more Black Americans could be buried there in a long-forgotten mass grave. 

So far, no findings have been announced.

Tulsa, Oklahoma Mayor GT Bynum, "It should not have taken 99 years for us to be doing this investigation," Bynum told reporters to NBC News. "But this generations of Tulsans is committed to doing what's right by our neighbors and following the truth wherever it leads us."

Mayor Bynum has also been providing updates about the excavation on his official Facebook page.