Unmarked Coffins in Tulsa possible 1921 pogrom victims

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Researchers in Tulsa, Okla., have concluded their latest round of test excavations in the search for remains of Black victims killed during a race massacre nearly a century ago.

Tulsa officials said at least 11 coffins were discovered over four days of digging in specific areas of the city-owned Oaklawn Cemetery. It is one of the locations historians and researchers believe mass graves exist stemming from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

The newly discovered coffins are in addition to one that was previously thought to be in the section of the cemetery known as the Original 18 site, bringing the total discovered to 12. The dig got underway on Monday.

Historians say that 99 years ago, white mobs targeted an area of Tulsa known as the Greenwood District, killing between 150 and 300 Black residents, while looting and burning businesses, homes and churches to the ground.

Crews worked to document and photograph what had already been unearthed, including caskets, nails, and human remains including bone, teeth and skull fragments.

None of the remains recovered had headstones, Tulsa World reports, which adds that researchers were looking for as many as 18 Black men.

Researchers said they preserved the burial site by filling a portion of it with sand and laying plywood over the immediate area, before refilling it with dirt.

Scott Ellsworth, a historian with the project, said he was "optimistic" after the discoveries this week. He also said it is an important moment for not just Tulsa, but for the country.

"This is the only time any level of American government, municipal state or county has ever gone out to search the hidden remains of victims of racial violence in American history," Ellsworth said.

Officials expect to resume the search in 2021 when weather conditions permit, according to a statement from the city. It also said preservation of the remains was "less than ideal" and added that experts did not expose the remains for a full excavation and analysis.

Mayor G.T. Bynum thanked the residents of Tulsa who he said "reversed nearly a century of conventional wisdom of this being something we don't want to talk about," speaking of the decades-old massacre.

Anyone watch the new TV series of Fargo (season 4) involving a true story involving a crime syndicate battle between Italian mobsters and African American businesses that took place in 1950.

The Italian mobsters initial attempts to compete with the African American businesses fail but eventually they succeed in getting the African American business owners beaten up by the police and thrown in jail by giving a false tip.

While rotting in jail the Italian mob leader saunters into the prison to gloat. He tells the black prisoners that "when Americans (he means white Americans) see us they don't see criminals, they see upstanding citizens, But when they look at you they see a crime. "You are a crime", "America was built on a crime". (he of course was referring to the genocide of the native americans followed by 400 years of inhuman abject slavery of millions of blacks). For me this was a landmark moment in TV,

I recommend people watch Fargo Season 4, although it takes place in 1950 the way white Americans sabotage African Americans from social advancement very clearly demonstrates what happened to black communities that succeeded in creating economic success stories (the so called black Wall streets) in Tulsa Oklahoma and in San Francisco California and how white mobs and police destroyed their livelihoods. It's a chilling testimony to the power of propoganda and the erasure of history to create a false narrative.

Have you watched the scene in prison Kraichie? I think the line "America was built on a crime" is an amazingly powerful statement that challenges the blind faith in patriotism which has helped cover up America's true history but also its unfinished business with facing the issues of race.