A century after a race massacre, Tulsa finally digs for suspected mass graves

Source: Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/07/13/tulsa-digs-mass-graves-race-massacre-oaklawn-cemetery/

The excavation at Oaklawn Cemetery, delayed for months by the pandemic, began Monday morning.

By DeNeen L. Brown
July 13, 2020 at 7:28 p.m. CDT

TULSA — Nearly a century after a brutal race massacre left as many as 300 black people dead, this city began to dig Monday for suspected mass graves from the violence.

A team of scientists, archaeologists and forensic anthropologists watched as a backhoe moved dirt from an 8-by-10-foot hole at the city-owned Oaklawn Cemetery, where ground-penetrating radar last year detected anomalies consistent with mass graves.

Several descendants of massacre survivors bore witness to the moment outside the graveyard’s wrought-iron fence, standing in a light rain after the work was briefly delayed by booming thunder and lightning.

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Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum (R), who ordered the investigation reopened after a Washington Post story detailed the unresolved questions surrounding the violence, told reporters that he once thought it was incredible that there could be mass graves in Tulsa.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/07/13/tulsa-digs-mass-graves-race-massacre-oaklawn-cemetery/

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(much more at link - if you have access to WaPo, I highly recommend you read the whole piece.)

See also: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/09/28/feature/they-was-killing-black-people/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_14&itid=lk_inline_manual_9