TULSA, Okla. — The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Graves Investigation team exhumed 11 more individuals from Oaklawn Cemetery in the search for victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
They wrapped up their fourth excavation August 16th.
“It is my prayer that these efforts continue to bring more justice and healing to those who ar lost and those families in our community,” said Brenda Nails-Alford.
Brenda Nails-Alford has family members who survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. She’s a part of the city’s team investigating graves at Oaklawn Cemetery. It’s a team working to put names to remains some of which were buried more than 100 years ago.
“Each of the excavations have yielded a greater understanding of what’s underground in that cemetery which has allowed that focus to hone in and in and in,” said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum.
This work started 5 years ago in Oaklawn Cemetery. Since the, they’ve exhumed 47 remains. 11 of those remains were discovered its fourth excavation this summer. The team said three of them had gunshot wounds. Two of the individuals had been shot by two different guns and a third set of remains had evidence of burns.
“The people that we are searching for, our fellow Tulsans, they’re not just names in history these are our neighbors who were murdered in horrible ways,” said Bynum.
“This is definitely our largest number of very obvious cases of trauma that we have uncovered during the court of a single field season,” said State Archaeologist Dr. Kary Stackelbeck.
Since this work started experts documented more than 190 graves. Earlier this summer they officially identified the first victim from this investigation, C.L. Daniel, who died in Tulsa from a gunshot wound in 1921.
WATCH: 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victim identified after 103 years
The team will continue to analyze remains and then they’ll be sent off for DNA analysis.
Mayor Bynum said he hopes the next mayor will see the importance of the investigation and will follow through on any recommendations from the team.
“It is our mission to get these people reattached to their family, if possible and remove them from being unknown individuals or discarded individuals, “ said Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Phoebe Stubblefield.
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