City of Tulsa 1921 Graves Investigation

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Investigation (TRMI) also known as the City of Tulsa 1921 Graves Investigation

In 2018 Tulsa mayor GT Bynum followed through on a promise to investigate the occurrence of unmarked graves related to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.  For an eyewitness account of the looting and destruction from this event, we recommend Mary Parrish’s book Events of The Tulsa Disaster.

Additional information focusing on the historical accuracy of the event, and an analysis of documented deaths, can be found in the Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (2001; an abridged copy is available on this page

CAPHIL Director Phoebe R. Stubblefield is the lead forensic anthropologist of the 1921 Graves Investigation.  She is a descendant of massacre survivors Ellis W and Anna Woods (Ellis Woods was the principal of the only African American high school, Booker T Washington, at the time of the riot).   In 2020 the City and Greenwood community approved excavations in Oaklawn Cemetery, the city cemetery since at least 1903, although burials from the late 1800s are recorded.  This cemetery is one of several areas of interest to the investigation, due to historical newspaper accounts and death certificates.

Dr. Stubblefield has worked in collaboration with colleagues from the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, University of Tulsa, University of Oklahoma, San Diego State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, and SNA International, as well as Greenwood descendants and community members, and graduate students from the listed academic institutions and the University of Arizona and Mississippi State University.  The entire investigatory team includes staff from the City of Tulsa, the state of Oklahoma Archaeological Survey, archaeologists from Stantec, Inc., and geneticists and genealogists from Intermountain Forensics. 

In 2024 we confirmed our first victim identification, Pvt. CL Daniel, of Georgia.  Our genealogists worked closely with the Daniel family to establish their relationship with our Burial 03 from our 2021 recovery season.  A document from the National Archives confirmed Pvt. Daniel was a victim.

Pvt. Daniel’s family received the military honors due him in November 2024, and his burial place is no longer unmarked.

We have exhumed nearly 50 individuals, six with gunshot wound trauma.  The search is hampered by a lack of records for the relevant area of Oaklawn cemetery, but our search for burials fitting the historical record of male victims buried in plain caskets allowed the recovery of Pvt. Daniel.