The massacre of Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street”

White mobs destroyed “Black Wall Street” in 1921. But where are the victims’ bodies?

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100 years ago, a white mob destroyed an American neighborhood called “Black Wall Street,” murdering an estimated 300 people in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That incident — known as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre — has been largely left out of US history books. Today, a century later, the city still has a lot of questions. For one, where are the bodies of the victims? As the city’s mayor re-opens the search for mass graves, we take a look at what happened back in 1921…and why finding these graves still matters to the people of Tulsa.

For more reading, check out the links below:

Vox’s reporting on an eyewitness account of the horrific attack:

The Washington Post’s in-depth story on the massacre and the current challenges of gentrification:

And to take a look through more digitized photos, audio, and documents from 1921, check out the Tulsa Historical Society’s collection:

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