HOUSTON, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- As many as 24 more unmarked graves have been unearthed Wednesday in the continuous investigation of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in south central U.S. state Oklahoma, according to the city authorities.
At an excavation site in the Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa, researchers uncovered 17 adult-sized graves last week, another four including two child-sized burials on Tuesday and three additional child-size graves on Wednesday, reported local newspaper the Tulsa World.
The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre is known as one of the worst known white mob violence against Black Americans in U.S. history.
One set of uncovered remains buried in a simple coffin "was exhumed this afternoon and taken to the on-site osteology lab for further analysis," the city said in a press release on Wednesday, adding that work continues with hand excavation of four burials found one day earlier.
The 19 sets of exhumed remains in last year were examined for DNA test in October and then reinterred.
The project is part of Tulsa's year-long efforts to get an accurate count of how many people were killed when a white mob decimated a thriving business district known as Black Wall Street, where black residents lived under Jim Crow segregation.
More than 1,000 homes were burned and hundreds looted during the racist violence. Historians have estimated the death toll to be between 75 and 300, with Black Americans' generational wealth being wiped out.
Victims were never compensated, however a pending lawsuit seeks reparations for the three remaining known survivors of the violence. They are now more than 100 years old. ■
