Last week, C. L. Daniel, the first identified Tulsa Race Massacre victim in over 100 years, was honored in a ceremony at Oaklawn Cemetery along with other unknown victims. Today, a monument stands in the corner of the cemetery honoring the significance of the burials, recognizing the work of so many, and most importantly, naming C. L. Daniel. In addition to the project memorial marker, individual headstones were placed at each of the exhumed burials.
The Mayor of Tulsa, the family of C. L. Daniel, and many of those who have worked on the project over the years (including a few members of our own team) were in attendance at the ceremony. It will be a day we will not forget. The family expressed the significance of the identification and ceremony in a statement, “Today represents more than a memorial for C.L. Daniel and those still resting in unidentified graves; it is a long-awaited acknowledgment of lives impacted by the massacre and a testament to the resilience of the Greenwood community, which has sought recognition and justice for their loved ones over generations.”
Our Genealogy Teams at Work
Our genealogy teams continue the challenging work of identifying the remaining burials by working with DNA comparisons at GEDmatch and FamilyTree DNA. (Learn how to have your DNA compared to the burials.) The updated surnames/locations can be found on the City of Tulsa's website here. If you believe you have any of the surnames in your family tree that align with the locations mentioned, please submit information here, or reach out to our team at idteam@tulsa1921dna.org
We want to say thank you to our genealogy partners who have donated so many hours of pro bono research to this project: Identifinders International, DNA Doe Project, Moxxy Forensics, Cold Case Coalition, and DNA Detectives.
Ongoing Archaeology Work
On November 7th, the City of Tulsa announced that crews conducted soil sampling at Newblock Park, another possible location of interest of the 1921 Massacre. Past updates on the archaeology and anthropology work can be found at the City of Tulsa's 1921 Graves Facebook page, which live streamed last week's memorial ceremony. A recording is still available.
There is still much work to be done, and we are honored to be part of the effort to restore information once thought to be lost forever.
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