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Oversight Committee Also Gathering Oral Histories Related to 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Graves

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In addition to its work guiding the search for mass graves from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a public oversight committee is also working to archive oral histories tied to potential burial sites.

At the committee's last meeting, City of Tulsa Chief of Community Development and Policy Nick Doctor read from an oral history submitted under the initials K.R.W. It tells about the person’s uncle, Arley Williamson, who was stopped while transporting oilfield equipment through the area.

"The men told my uncle that they needed his truck and that they were going to drive down through colored town in Tulsa and that they were going to wipe it clean. My uncle refused to be a part of it, and they held him at gunpoint and forced him to drive."

K.R.W.’s oral history goes on to say Williamson saw perpetrators of the massacre burying bodies 

"My Uncle Arley said that they were piling up negro bodies beside the Arkansas River in mass graves and burying them with bulldozers. As I remember, it was the east side of the river, not far from downtown."

Another oral history submitted under the initials S.S. said an old black and black Creek cemetery behind what’s now Rolling Oaks deserves a look.

"There are various headstones, broken stones, natural stone markers and large depressions in the ground. It looks as if the area is much larger than where the most obvious headstones are easily seen. Has anyone thought to check in this abandoned cemetery?" Doctor read.

The oversight committee is working with the Greenwood Cultural Center and Tulsa Historical Society to preserve new stories and add them to a set collected in 1999.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.