Tulsa mayor to look for mass graves from 1921 race massacre

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – The mayor of Tulsa says he plans to re-examine whether mass graves hold remains of those killed in one of the nation’s worst race massacres nearly 100 years ago .

Estimates of those slain in the 1921 Tulsa race massacre range from three dozen to 300. As the 100th anniversary approaches, community leaders have pushed for justice for the dead.

Mayor G.T. Bynum said via Facebook on Tuesday that he started doing research on the potential for mass graves in 2012 as a city councilman. He said a man who was a child in 1921 told a state commission studying the massacre that he remembered seeing bodies dumped in a cemetery.

Bynum says he is talking with archaeological experts to come up with minimally invasive ways to look for mass graves in three spots.