LOCAL
Kimberly Marsh, The Oklahoma Eagle
Negro Slain in Tulsa Riot, June-1-1921. Source DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Wikipedia
Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols is expected to provide an update on Wednesday June 18 on findings from the investigation of mass graves of victims killed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The mayor’s announcement will come just a few hours in advance of the Tulsa City Council’s anticipated final consideration of the 2026 city budget and a day before the city holiday commemorating Juneteenth.
During council meetings in early June, more than 15 Tulsans spoke in support of the mayor’s proposed $1 million in additional funding for the mass graves investigation. The official probe into the mass graves began more than five years ago. Nichols proposed that funding for the investigation be included in the approved budget for fiscal year 2026 during his Road to Repair address about reparations for 1921 Tulsa Massacre descendants. He made the address on June 1 during the 2025 Legacy Fest activities.
Nichols has said he will make announcements and provide updates on the 1921 Graves Investigation in a news conference with archaeologists and experts from the consulting Intermountain Forensics firm. His remarks will be streamed live on the 1921 Graves Facebook page @1921Graves.
The funding sought would be used to continue the 1921 graves investigation and excavation work at Oaklawn Cemetery, one of the main sites where investigators have looked for graves from the Massacre.
Supporters who attended the City Council meeting on June 4 spoke in support of adding this budget item in the overall city budget included business leaders, Beyond Apology Commission members, 1921 Oversight Commissioners, clergy and historians.
Kode Ransom, who leads tours of Historic Greenwood, was one of the speakers.
“People come to this particular city to see what Black bodies built,” he said. “We can’t just benefit from the story and not actually finish the story. We’re in the first chapter of the book, and if you finish at that first chapter, no one gets an understanding of what truly happened here.”
Taylor West, the youngest Commissioner serving on the Tulsa Beyond Apology Commission, also spoke. West noted that he is not a direct descendant of the massacre victims, but like thousands he is a witness to how the echoes of 1921 still shape the lives of young black people in Tulsa today.
“I am part of a generation that refuses to look away,” he said. “That is why I am here to speak in full support of Mayor Monroe Nichols request for the Council to allocate $1 million from the city budget to continue the mass graves investigation. Imagine not being able to complete your family tree.”
Vernon A.M.E. Associate Pastor Francetta Mays reflected on the bodies that may never be recovered, those that still lay under the dugout at ONEOK Field and under the I 244 expressway.
“When we reflect on all of the remnants of the massacre and those that that will never be recovered, what we’re asking you to do is create a strategic plan. Instead of making us continue to ask for permission for you to do what’s right, help us to identify the dead in our community. Undeniably, this happened, and no human being should be okay with continuing to cover it up,” Mays said.
Vernon AME Pastor Keith Mayes noted that healing is still possible. He stated that the death of hundreds, murdered and buried secretly without ceremony or justice, has been silenced and is haunting.
“This is not about guilt. This is about grace. This is about dignity,” he said of the continued investigation.
Former Greenwood Rising Director and Beyond Apology Commissioner Phil Armstrong asked everyone to imagine that your grandmother one day said your grandfather left the house because something terrible was happening in the community, and he never came back.
“All your grandmother has been able to tell you is that one day he left, didn’t come home, several people were killed, this terrible thing happened, and all we can assume is that he was a part of that destruction and that damage and that murder and the terror. We don’t have a birth certificate; we don’t have time of death. We don’t have a grave marker. All we know is that something happened to him that time,” Armstrong said, adding that the justice system has said there is no legal standing to prosecute, but humans have a moral obligation.
“We were not a part of what happened 100 years ago. Neither you nor I were there, but we are all stewards of what happened, and we are in positions of power to help repair,” he said.
Alicia Odewale, a Black archeologist associated with the mass grave investigation, said she discovered her own ancestry as a descendant of the Massacre victims while serving on three committees.
“So I’m asking that this body of people that are there to represent our districts will vote yes, not only on $1 million being proposed for this budget, but will also to reinstate the power that was entrusted to the public oversight committee in its original format, and offer some sort of a liaison…to ensure that there’s transparency across every one of our committee structures.”
The Oklahoma Eagle will provide online updates about this story.
