Plan For Full Excavation At Oaklawn Cemetery’s Mass Grave To Move Forward This Summer

Archeologists will be back at Oaklawn Cemetery this summer for a full excavation of the mass grave there, instead of waiting another year, after a decision was made Tuesday night during a virtual Public Oversight Committee meeting.

The scientists will study the human remains discovered last October, and work to determine whether they are connected to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. 

City of Tulsa Deputy Mayor Amy Brown said the city plans to turn in paperwork to the State Department of Health this week now that this decision has been made. If the team had not agreed this month, experts warned plans would have been pushed back by a year. 

"We all are passionate here on this measure. So I am of great comfort and of great support that we unanimously believe that the excavation should continue,” Public Oversight Committee Chair Kavin Ross said during the meeting. 

Before remains are removed from the mass grave found at Oaklawn Cemetery, the state requires a plan for where to put them once the research is done. 

 That is what some on the committee struggled to agree on in February’s meeting, but Ross announced Tuesday night the team came to an agreement. 

“As a temporary measure, we all agree that the re-interment should be back in Oaklawn until such a time as a more suitable, permanent spot where the majority of the committee believes that it be more fitting and suiting for those that who perished in 1921,” Ross said. 

After archaeologists do their excavation work, the remains will be temporarily placed back at Oaklawn until a permanent burial site is chosen. 

The city also announced Mayor G.T. Bynum’s Deputy Chief of Staff Rodrigo Rojas will serve as a Staff Support Lead to assist the Public Oversight Committee with arrangements for a permanent memorial. 

The excavation work at Oaklawn is expected to start in June and could last weeks or months. It will involve bringing more archeologists on the team and hiring a funeral director to oversee the work. 

The city said Keith Biglow Funeral Directors Inc. has been selected to partner with the city as the funeral director to work on the excavation project. 

“Our application to the Oklahoma State Department of Health requires a funeral director who will sign off on the application and who will also monitor the work ,” Brown said.  

The city also announced Tuesday that the owner of Rolling Oaks Memorial Gardens cemetery is ready to schedule a time for scientists do research there, as part of the investigation. That work is also expected to start in June. 

The committee also expressed interest in learning more about efforts to connect the remains to relatives through DNA. The city said it would arrange for genetic experts to join the next Public Oversight Committee meeting.