After spending a small fortune for a lot of workers to stand around and do little, the initial search for a mass grave connected to the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot came up empty.

They uncovered no evidence of human remains.

“At this point, we believe we have fully investigated this anomaly, and unfortunately we have not discovered the evidence of Race Massacre victims we were hoping to find,” said Kary Stackelbeck, State Archeologist with the State of Oklahoma. “But we have learned a great deal about the cemetery itself, and this is information we can carry forward as we investigate future sites.”

This is good news. It means that reports of deaths during 1921 may not have been as bad as some predicted.

It’s bad news for those who want to stir up racial strife and who want some sort of reparations for sins committed in the last century.

The crews worked for eight days in Oaklawn Cemetery and found some old shoes, one bullet, bottles and other junk.

Mayor G.T. Bynum has committed even more taxpayer funds to continue the search for the mass graves. He believes the search is one for justice and healing, even though the black people who were directly impacted by this event are all long gone. And any criminals in this case are dead and gone.

Will more empty searches put this controversy to rest?

Probably not.

“I know that we are just at the beginning of a long-term investigation for truth, and that we have a powerful team assembled that will continue that work,” said Public Oversight Committee Chair Brenda Alford. 

Let’s hope that if the truth is there are no mass graves, that Tulsans will put this theory to rest.