More Than 20 New Coffins Discovered In Search For Tulsa Massacre Victims
In the ongoing search to identify victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, 21 new coffins have been discovered.
According to the Associated Press, while searching in Oaklawn Cemetery, Oklahoma State Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck said 19 adult and two child graves were found. The coffins and remains will be examined to see if they match the victims of the massacre.
Stackelbeck said in a video statement, “This is going to part of our process of discriminating which ones we’re going to proceed with in terms of exhuming those individuals and which ones we’re actually going to leave in place.”
The search for the victim's remains has been underway for more than two years.
In May 1921, a Black teenager was wrongfully accused of assaulting a white teen girl in an elevator. In reaction, a mob of white supremacists attacked the city’s Greenwood community, also known as Black Wall Street, where a large number of middle class and prosperous African Americans lived. Homes, businesses and churches were burnt to the ground.
The Tulsa Massacre was one of the most devastating incidents of racial violence inflicted upon Black people in American history. It demolished the community causing nearly $50 million in losses. There has never been an official death toll of the massacre.
