At least 300 residents may have been killed during the 24 hours that the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma experienced lynchings of black citizens. Over 10,000 were left homeless and the district was razed.
The death in 1921 was followed by silence, from the authorities but also among the affected blacks. Fear, guilt and racial hatred were strong, underlying forces.
Traces gone
Perhaps time has now caught up with history. On Wednesday, new exhumations of bodies began to find DNA. The bodies were examined a year ago and then reburied. The DNA traces were insignificant or completely gone according to the head of the investigation Danny Hellwig. Therefore, it was decided to re-examine some of the 19 bodies that were exhumed a year ago.
“The samples have been broken down almost completely,” says Hellwig, who, however, hopes that two of the bodies have enough traces for further examination.
At the same time, the Intermountain Forensic Laboratory in Salt Lake City is trying to trace descendants of the victims of the massacre.
Biden first president
In addition, another 18 bodies, with suspected gunshot wounds, are to be exhumed in the attempt to find more answers about the victims of the massacre.
Few victims accepted the meager compensation that was offered, and the event has hardly found a place in the history books of the United States.
Only last year did a sitting US president visit Tulsa on the anniversary of the massacre. “What happened then is directly related to what is happening now,” President Joe Biden said in June 2021 as he honored the victims at a memorial ceremony.