Three exhumed 1921 Tulsa massacre victims found to have gunshot wounds

[August 19, 2024]  By Jasper Ward
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three of the 11 victims of the 1921 race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who were exhumed on Friday, were found with gunshot wounds, the city said.   

Two of those three victims were found to have wounds from two different firearms and one had "evidence of possible burns," the city said in an update of its investigation into the massacre.

Smoke rises from buildings during the race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. in 1921. Alvin C. Krupnick Co./National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Records/Library of Congress/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

“The people we are searching for are not just names in history, they are someone’s family who deserve a proper burial,” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said.

More than 40 remains have been exhumed since Bynum launched the 1921 Graves Investigation in 2018. The project aims to reexamine the potential graves from the massacre.

State archaeologist Dr. Kary Stackelbeck said data has confirmed that the experts involved in the project are finding individuals who fit the profile of massacre victims.

Last month, a World War One veteran became the first massacre victim identified as a part of the project.

Twenty-six death certificates were issued for Black victims of the massacre in 1921. However, it is estimated that as many as 300 people, most of them Black, died on May 31, 1921, when a large white mob overwhelmed Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood, a prosperous community nicknamed "Black Wall Street."

(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Chris Reese)

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