[PEN-L:4634] Mass graves hold the secrets of

["Frank Durgin" <fdurgin1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 From Eectronic Telegraph

                                         Mass graves hold the secrets of
                                         American race massacre
                                         By James Langton in New York




                           1921 Tulsa race riot -
                           Homestead Press

                           Black Wallstreet -
                           Davey D






                                         INVESTIGATORS are searching for
the graves of up to 400
                                         black Americans in an attempt to
end the 78-year cover-up
                                         of one of the worst acts of mass
slaughter in the country's
                                         history.

                                         Dr Clyde Snow, the world's leading
authority in forensic
                                         anthropology, is preparing to
spend the coming months in
                                         his home state of Oklahoma,
identifying the remains of
                                         hundreds of men, women and
children believed buried in
                                         communal graves.

                                         The dead are the long-missing
casualties of the Tulsa race
                                         riot in 1921, a little-known
chapter in American history
                                         which, if substantiated, would
eclipse even the 1995
                                         Oklahoma bombing as the country's
worst civilian atrocity.

                                         Using accounts from newly
discovered witnesses and
                                         sophisticated ground-penetrating
radar, a team of
                                         historians and scientists believes
that the death toll from the
                                         massacre could have been as high
as 400.

                                         Dr Snow, 71, has uncovered the
bones of Josef Mengele, the
                                         Auschwitz "Angel of Death", in
Brazil and the victims of
                                         atrocities in every continent from
Argentina to Ethiopia and
                                         Bosnia. "I was used to seeing such
things in Bosnia or
                                         Africa," he said. "But this is so
close to home. It is important
                                         to remember these things can
happen in your own
                                         backyard."

                                         The Tulsa riot has been largely
forgotten for more than
                                         seven decades, not least because
of a campaign by the local
                                         authorities to cover up the full
extent of the killing in its
                                         immediate aftermath.

                                         Dozens of official documents are
missing, believed destroyed
                                         in the cover-up. Most
controversially, a headline and
                                         editorial from the Tulsa Tribune
that called for whites to
                                         "lynch a negro tonight", which is
widely believed to have
                                         sparked the slaughter, have been
removed from every
                                         surviving archive edition. A
reward is now being offered for
                                         a copy of the original newspaper.

                                         New evidence uncovered in the past
months backs long-held
                                         views among black survivors of the
riot that the number of
                                         victims was far higher than the
official report of between 36
                                         and 100. One 88-year-old man,
Clyde Eddy, has come
                                         forward to say that he saw boxes
of dead blacks being
                                         buried secretly in crates in
unmarked graves at a city
                                         cemetery. Four other possible
sites of mass graves are also to
                                         be investigated.

                                         The violence followed the arrest
of Dick Rowland, a black
                                         shoeshine boy on May 31, 1921.
Newspaper reports wrongly
                                         claimed that he had sexually
assaulted a 17-year-old white
                                         girl in the lift of the office
block where they both worked.

                                         Later, gangs of blacks and whites
clashed outside the
                                         county courthouse where he was
being held. In the violence
                                         that followed, gangs of
heavily-armed whites poured in to
                                         town. More than 30 city blocks
were levelled, many of them
                                         in a thriving commercial district
known as "Black Wall
                                         Street".

                                         Some 10,000 blacks were left
homeless and more than 1,000
                                         houses burnt to the ground. Order
was re-established only a
                                         day later when National Guardsmen
entered Tulsa,
                                         detaining at least 4,000 blacks in
impromptu prison camps.

                                         An official commission of inquiry
was first proposed after
                                         the 75th anniversary of the
rioting in 1996. The 11-man
                                         panel of experts voted earlier
this month to establish a
                                         "historical record" of the riot
and to expand the search for
                                         bodies.

                                         The prime mover of the
investigation, a black Oklahoma
                                         senator, Don Ross, says there has
been "a conspiracy of
                                         silence for 75 years. Some people
have worked very hard to
                                         keep this hidden".

                                         Despite the passage of time,
investigators believe they have
                                         found at least 40 witnesses to the
violence, the eldest of
                                         whom was a 16-year-old girl at the
time. One eyewitness
                                         report speaks of piles of bodies
stacked in lorries "like
                                         firewood".

                                         The search for human remains will
concentrate on five
                                         possible sites for mass graves,
including land near the
                                         Arkansas river and what is now a
local park. Most of the
                                         dead were buried without ceremony
- partly because they
                                         constituted a serious health
hazard in the early summer
                                         heat.

                                         Dick Warner, a commission
investigator, says: "We are not
                                         trying to set any blame, just to
find out what really
                                         happened." If the remains of a
large number of women and
                                         children are found, says Dr Snow,
then "what we have here
                                         is a form of ethnic cleansing".





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