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A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 19 october 2020
Tulsa digs again for victims of 1921 race massacre

By KEN MILLER will not be disturbed, By-
Associated Press num said. The excavation
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A would stop, and investiga-
second excavation begins tors would "do what they
Monday at a cemetery in need to do to identify them
an effort to find and iden- and determine a cause of
tify victims of the 1921 Tulsa death," Bynum said.
Race Massacre and shed Efforts would also be made
light on violence that left to find any descendants,
hundreds dead and deci- a project that could prove
mated an area that was difficult, according to By-
once a cultural and eco- num. "A hundred years after
nomic mecca for African the fact, the descendants
Americans. are scattered all around
"I realize we can tell this the world. Tracking down
story the way it needs to the descendants could
be told, now," said Phoe- take years," Bynum said.
be Stubblefield, a foren- One site to be searched,
sic anthropologist at the known as the Original 18,
University of Florida and a is where old funeral home
descendant of a survivor records indicate up to 18
of the massacre who is as- Black people who were
sisting the search, told The massacre victims were bur-
Associated Press. "The story In this July 14, 2020, file photo, workers climb out of the excavation site as work continues on a ied. The other site is where
is no longer hidden. We're potential unmarked mass grave from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, at Oaklawn Cemetery in a man named Clyde Eddy
Tulsa, Okla.
putting the completion on Associated Press said in the 1990s that, as a
this event." 10-year-old boy, he saw
The violence happened vent Black people from re- done in an area identified to avoid coinciding with Black bodies being pre-
on May 31 and June 1 in covering. "Personally, pro- by ground-penetrating ra- a Juneteenth celebration pared for burial shortly after
1921, when a white mob fessionally, spiritually I have dar scans as appearing in the Greenwood District the massacre, but was told
attacked Tulsa's Black Wall an investment in this," said to be a human-dug pit in- commemorating the end to leave the area.
Street, killing an estimated Stubblefield, a Los Angeles dicative of a mass grave. of slavery. Bynum, who is Archaeologists have identi-
300 people and wound- native who said she is in It turned out be a filled-in 43, said he didn't learn of fied two additional possible
ing 800 more while robbing her early 50s and learned creek, said Mayor G.T. By- the massacre until about sites, said state archaeolo-
and burning businesses, of the massacre and her num, who first proposed 20 years ago during the gist Kary Stackelbeck, who
homes and churches. ancestor, who she doesn't looking for victims of the mayoral campaign of his is leading the investigation.
"People, they were just recall ever meeting, in the violence in 2018 and later uncle Bill LaFortune, and his "We have multiple areas
robbed, white people 1990s. budgeted $100,000 to fund grandparents confirmed that we have identified as
coming in saying Black The two locations to be it after previous searches the events. having merits for investiga-
people had better proper- searched are in Oaklawn failed to find victims. "That's a very common tion," based on the 2019
ty than they had and that Cemetery in north Tulsa, It also received renewed thing in Tulsa. That's how radar scans, Stackelbeck
that was just not right," said where a search for remains attention after President you learned about it, not said. "We just have to ask
Stubblefield, whose great- of victims ended without Donald Trump selected through books or the me- for grace and patience"
aunt Anna Walker Woods success in July, and near Tulsa as the location for a dia or in school," Bynum during the search.
had her home burned the Greenwood District June rally amid a national said. "People didn't start The latest search is sched-
and property taken. "Burn- where the massacre took reckoning over police bru- talking about this event in uled to last about a week,
ing, thieving, killing wasn't place. tality and racial violence. Tulsa until about 20 years but could be extended, ac-
enough. They had to pre- The earlier excavation was Trump moved the date ago." Bodies, if discovered, cording to Stubblefield.q

Report: Damage from August wind storm in Midwest at $7.5B

other parts of the Midwest knocked out power to half especially vulnerable. He
in August are growing, with a million Iowa residents said the damage would
the total now at $7.5 billion, and damaged homes, have been significantly
according to a new report. trees and power lines. Four less if the derecho had oc-
The Aug. 10 storm hit Iowa people died as the storm curred in the spring, before
hard but also caused dam- moved across the Midwest. crops were tall enough to
age in Illinois, Ohio, Minne- The most expensive disaster be caught by the wind.
sota and Indiana. The Na- so far this year was Hurri- "If you were looking to exert
tional Oceanic and Atmo- cane Laura, which caused the most damage on corn
spheric Administration said $14 billion in damage when crops when it comes to
it's currently the second- it hit the Gulf Coast in Au- thunderstorms and heavy
costliest U.S. disaster so far gust, according to the winds, when the derecho
in 2020, although cost esti- NOAA research. rolled through in August, it
mates for widespread wild- National Weather Service was the perfect time to do
Iowa Department of Transportation workers help with tree debris fires along the West Coast meteorologist Allan Cur- it," Curtis said. The U.S. Agri-
removal as grain bins from the Archer Daniels Midland facility aren't yet available. tis told the Des Moines culture Department has es-
are seen severely damaged in Keystone, Iowa, on Wednesday, The storm, known as a dere- Register that the derecho timated that Iowa farmers
Aug. 12, 2020.
Associated Press cho, generated winds of up caused such extensive will be unable to harvest at
to 140 mph (225 kph) that damage because it lasted least 850,000 acres (343,983
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — a rare wind storm that flattened millions of acres for roughly 14 hours and hectares) of crops this fall
Damage estimates from slammed Iowa and some of crops. The derecho also hit crops when they were because of the damage.q