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Search Begins for Remains of Tulsa Race Massacre Victims

VOA News

   U.S. researchers have begun searching for the unmarked mass graves of
   an estimated 300 African Americans who were killed in the Tulsa Race
   Massacre nearly a century ago.

   Test excavations began Monday in Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
   located in the south-central region of the U.S., after a radar search
   earlier this year revealed the possibility of mass graves.

   The search was postponed in March because of the coronavirus pandemic
   and involves the use of a backhoe to remove the first layer of soil
   before more delicate tools are used if remains are discovered, said
   Oklahoma State Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck.

   The Tulsa Race Massacre, also known as the Tulsa Race Riot, during
   which white mobs murdered Black residents and destroyed businesses in
   an affluent area known as Black Wall Street, is arguably the worst
   outbreak of racial violence in U.S. history.

   Eighteen hours of violence that erupted on May 31, 1921, left the
   city's prosperous Black community of Greenwood burned to the ground.

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