Search for Victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre Has Uncovered 27 Coffins

There are strong reasons to suspect that the mass grave was for victims of the 1921 killing, given contemporary evidence.

Last summer, after generations of silence and denial, the city of Tulsa, Okla., began excavations in search of the graves of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Nearly a century had passed since a mob of white Tulsans violently invaded the prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood, overcoming a vigorous defense by some residents, killing and rounding up Black Tulsans en masse and burning much of the neighborhood to the ground. The search for graves now underway is based on surveying technology informed by scattered evidence — nearly century-old newspaper articles, funeral home records and scarred memories. The first site that was excavated, in a part of the city’s Oaklawn Cemetery, turned up no evidence of a mass grave. But in October, the remains of at least 12 people were discovered in a mass grave in what was once the Black potter’s field within Oaklawn. At the beginning of June, the research team returned for more extensive searching. On Tuesday, they announced that evidence of at least 15 more coffins had been found, though whether any of them were connected to the massacre has yet to be determined.