Search to begin for graves of Tulsa race massacre victims

The search for possible mass graves of Tulsa Race Massacre victims is set to begin.

The Oklahoma Archeological Survey is to begin subsurface scanning Monday afternoon in Oaklawn Cemetery in north Tulsa.

The process often called “ground-penetrating radar” is expected to continue through Thursday in the search for victims of the 1921 massacre that left as many as 300 dead on Tulsa’s Black Wall Street.

On May 31st and June 1st, 1921 “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history” took place when mobs of white residents attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa. More than 35 square blocks of the district were destroyed. At the time, the area was home to the wealthiest black community in the United States, known as “Black Wall Street”.

The cemetery is one of three sites to be examined under an October declaration by Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum.

Bynum has said today’s technology “is light years” ahead of what was available 20 years ago when a search of the sites was led by what was known as the Tulsa Race Riot Commission.