Another round in the search for graves of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims has concluded.
Researchers held a media update Thursday to summarize their latest efforts. Remains of 80 more individuals were documented in Oaklawn Cemetery with nine meeting search criteria for exhumation.
Forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield said her team will be determining characteristics of the deceased in the coming weeks.
“So I’m hoping we’ll get them through this process, we’re shooting for before Thanksgiving, but it’s going to very tight,” she said.
Stubblefield estimated that eight of the remains are in good enough shape to yield possible genetic material that could be used for positive identification. One individual appears to have a gunshot wound and was found with a bullet.
Survivor descendant Brenda Nails-Alford thanked the team that has discovered more than 200 graves to date in an effort to identify people lost in history to racist violent.
“It has been seven long years, but I so appreciate the strength, the courage and the tenacity of everyone who has been involved, because if we didn’t do this work, it would basically be saying we want to continue to erase that history.”
Scholars estimate as many as 300 people died in the Tulsa Race Massacre that saw the prosperous neighborhood known as Black Wall Street destroyed at the hands of a white mob.
