Researchers Find Possible Evidence Of Mass Graves From 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
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Researchers in Oklahoma have found what is possible evidence of mass graves from the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, one of the worst instances of racial violence in American history.
Scientists presented the findings at a public forum in Tulsa on Monday. Scott Hammerstedt, senior researcher at the Oklahoma Archeological Survey based at the University of Oklahoma, said at the forum that he was “as confident as I can be that this is a very big candidate for something associated with the massacre.”
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Geophysical instruments use noninvasive methods to “measure and locate variations of the physical characteristics of the soil” by operating near or at ground level, an Oklahoma Archeological Survey report explains.
Last year, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum called for the city to reinvestigate the existence of mass graves from the 1921 massacre in Tulsa’s prosperous Greenwood District, where some investigators believe as many as 300 people were killed, though estimates vary.
In 1921, a white mob violently rampaged through the Greenwood District, an area of Black-owned businesses known as Black Wall Street, and burned down and destroyed much of the area, including homes, churches, schools and a hospital, according to a 2001 Oklahoma commission report.
The white mob attacks on Black residents in the Greenwood District began after Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old Black shoe shiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white elevator operator in downtown Tulsa on May 30, 1921.
The report determined that Rowland most likely tripped and stepped on Page’s foot, and he fled after she screamed. Charges against Rowland were later dismissed.
White mobs gathered at the Tulsa County Courthouse where Rowland was being held on May 31. Under the threat that Rowland would be lynched by white rioters, groups of armed Black men arrived to help protect him, the report said, adding that violence erupted after a shot rang out at the courthouse, where Black residents were outnumbered more than 20 to 1.
White armed rioters descended upon Black neighborhoods, shooting and killing Black residents in a violent rampage that carried over until June 1.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tulsa-massacre-1921-mass-graves_n_5df904d4e4b03aed50f6653c
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