Tulsa digs again for victims of 1921 race massacre
(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki File)OKLAHOMA CITY โ A second excavation begins Monday at a cemetery in an effort to find and identify victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and shed light on violence that left hundreds dead and decimated an area that was once a cultural and economic mecca for African Americans. The two locations to be searched are in Oaklawn Cemetery in north Tulsa, where a search for remains of victims ended without success in July, and near the Greenwood District where the massacre took place. Bynum, who first proposed looking for victims of the violence in 2018 and later budgeted $100,000 to fund it after previous searches failed to find victims. โPeople didnโt start talking about this event in Tulsa until about 20 years ago.โBodies, if discovered, will not be disturbed, Bynum said. One site to be searched, known as the Original 18, is where old funeral home records indicate up to 18 Black people who were massacre victims were buried.
Attorneys file lawsuit seeking redress for Tulsa massacre
Attorneys for victims and their descendants affected by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre filed a lawsuit in state court on Tuesday against the City of Tulsa and other defendants seeking reparations for the destruction of the city's once thriving Black district. The city and insurance companies never compensated victims for their losses, and the massacre ultimately resulted in racial and economic disparities that still exist today, the lawsuit claims. In the years following the massacre, city and county officials actively thwarted the community's effort to rebuild and neglected the Greenwood and predominantly Black north Tulsa community in favor of overwhelmingly white parts of Tulsa, according to the suit. We believe this lawsuit will be successful because there is no question there is a nuisance created by the defendants." Other defendants include the Tulsa Regional Chamber, Board of County Commissioners, Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, Tulsa County Sheriff and the Oklahoma Military Department.
Search for Tulsa massacre victims resumes, no remains yet
Workers climb out of the excavation site as work continues on an excavation of a potential unmarked mass grave from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, at Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa, Okla., Tuesday, July 14, 2020. On May 31 and June 1 in 1921, white residents looted and burned Tulsas black Greenwood district, killing as many as 300 people with many believed buried in mass graves. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)TULSA, Okla. A third day of excavation began Wednesday at a Tulsa cemetery for remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre with no human remains yet found and the search area being expanded, according to state Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck. Searchers decided Wednesday to expand the excavation, Stackelbeck said. Partially because we were not finding any indicators that we were in a grave shaft but also for safety reasons.