Mayor, cemetery at odds in search for Tulsa massacre victims

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Officials say that a privately owned cemetery is blocking efforts to find the remains of black Tulsa residents killed nearly 100 years ago in a race riot. However an attorney for the cemetery says that his client submitted a proposal in November that would allow the city to search under certain conditions.

The 1921 massacre left as many as 300 dead on what was known as Tulsa’s Black Wall Street. The Tulsa World reports that Mayor G.T. Bynum says the city has been unable to investigate whether Rolling Oaks Cemetery in south Tulsa contains unmarked graves. An attorney for the cemetery says that his client wants safeguards to protect existing interments.