Forensic anthropologists will commence a second search for the remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre on Monday, Oct. 19, after a previous attempt to recover remains was unsuccessful this past summer.
The excavation, led by a city committee comprising forensic anthropologists from the University of Oklahoma and headed by University of Florida’s Phoebe Stubblefield, will focus on two specific areas of Oaklawn Cemetery. The first is located adjacent to two 1921 race massacre headstones in the historical Black section of the potters field. According to the city of Tulsa, funeral home records and other documents from 1921 show that at least 18 identified and unidentified Black massacre victims were buried in the city-owned cemetery.
The second test excavation site, also located in the southwest section of the cemetery, was determined with the help of Clyde Eddy. As a 10-year-old boy in 1921, Eddy recalls witnessing the burial of massacre victims at this site.
During a September meeting of the city committee, Stubblefield said she believes human remains will be found. If that is the case, Stubblefield said any and all remains will be left untouched while investigators look for clues as to who the victims are and how they died.
“No individuals will be removed from any burial site. We will be able to expose them enough to collect the evidence we need,” she said.
In December 2019, forensic archeologists scanning with ground-penetrating radar at sites within Oaklawn Cemetery found anomalies consistent with mass graves, including a “straight-walled boundary” that resembled a human-dug pit. Test excavations of the site began in March but had to be halted due to COVID-19. When the scientists picked the work back up in July, they were hopeful. Beyond the radar results, core samples within the area had also shown unusual anomalies. However, after eight days of excavation, no remains were found.
At the time, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum called the search a multi-year project that was far from over.
“Now we know for certain where they aren’t,” he told the Associated Press.
The July excavation tests took part along the western edge of Oaklawn Cemetery, as opposed to the southwest section that will be under investigation next week.
Beyond Oaklawn Cemetery, multiple sites of interest remain and are still candidates for possible graves related to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, including a field near Newblock Park and Rolling Oaks Memorial Gardens, where geophysical work is expected to occur.
On May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob looted and burned Tulsa’s Black Greenwood district—often referred to as Black Wall Street. The white attackers used World War I planes to drop projectiles in an effort to destroy businesses, homes and churches in the historically Black district. The massacre killed up to 300 Black people, and survivors were forced into internment camps overseen by National Guard members.
Photo: Forensic anthropologists digging on site during the July 2020 search. Credit: 1921Graves/Facebook.