Years after the city of Tulsa began exhumations at a cemetery long believed to hold the unmarked graves of numerous Tulsa Race Massacre victims, DNA has confirmed the speculation and identified a victim.
It’s the first such identification in 23 years — revealing a 20-something Black man whose last known residence was in Utah.
The man — C.L. Daniel — had been buried in an unmarked grave at the Oaklawn Cemetery, east of downtown and about 1.5 miles away from Tulsa’s Greenwood District, in what was known more than a century ago as Black Wall Street.
DNA collected from Daniel’s living relatives and submitted to GEDmatch.com and FamilyTreeDNA.com connected his name to the remains found in “burial 3″, according to Intermountain Forensics, the nonprofit laboratory contracted to do the DNA analysis.
From there, researchers learned more about him. For instance, Daniel, who was Black, had been living in Ogden prior to visiting Tulsa, and he was a World War I veteran with a disability that hindered his ability to find work.
In one letter, Daniel wrote that if the government had a job he could perform, he would work it “until I die,” Intermountain Forensics said in a news release.
But much else about Daniel, including why he was in Tulsa, has been lost to time, like many facts about the massacre itself.
All 35 blocks of the affluent Black, Tulsa neighborhood were razed between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when, according to research posted by the nonprofit digital library JSTOR, white rioters looted and burned the district, while deputized white people arrested and interned Black people in detention camps. Planes flew low over the neighborhood, with some witnesses claiming they dropped accelerant on the already burning neighborhood.
The Tulsa Historical Society and Museum said that around 300 people were killed in the massacre — many buried in unmarked graves.
The massacre began with an encounter between a Black man, Dick Rowland, and a white woman, Sarah Page, in an elevator in downtown Tulsa on May 30. Rowland was arrested.
“The details of what followed vary from person to person,” according to the Tulsa Historical Society. “Accounts of an incident circulated among the city’s white community during the day and became more exaggerated with each telling.”
The next day, an “inflammatory” Tulsa Tribune article stoked tensions, and racially segregated “armed mobs” faced off in front of the courthouse, where Rowland was jailed.
“Shots were fired and the outnumbered African Americans began retreating to the Greenwood District,” according to the historical society. And the white rioters followed. Greenwood was left in charred shambles.
“Dick Rowland, Sarah Page and an unknown gunman were the sparks that ignited a long smoldering fire,” the historical society said. “Jim Crow, jealousy, white supremacy, and land lust, all played roles in leading up to the destruction and loss of life on May 31 and June 1, 1921.”
In 2001, Oklahoma officials brought together a commission to investigate the massacre, culminating in a 200-page document that outlined how the massacre began and its repercussions. Daniel was the first victim identified since that report was released, according to a news release.
The city of Tulsa began exhuming graves in the Oaklawn Cemetery in 2018, in hopes to learn more about those killed in the massacre. Daniel’s remains were exhumed in 2021.
“C.L. Daniel was a veteran who served our country in World War I, who was killed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, and whose family did not know where he had been buried for the last 103 years - until [now],” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a news release. The Salt Lake Tribune was unable to contact Daniel’s family members.
In addition to DNA, analysts also verified Daniel’s identity using physical evidence, including notes from relatives and one from a Georgia congressman, a representative from the state where Daniel’s mother was living at the time.
That letter stated, “C. L. Daniel was killed in Oklahoma some time shortly after his discharge…” Another letter, written by an attorney representing Daniel’s mother and sent to the U.S. Veteran’s Administration, stated Daniel died in “a race riot in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921.”
Records show Daniel was drafted in the Army in 1918 and was discharged in 1919. He wasn’t married and didn’t have any children.
Letters also indicate that prior to his death, Daniel had been in Utah “working to find a job and a way back home to his mother in Georgia,” according to a news release.
Daniel’s remains will stay where they’ve been buried at the Oaklawn Cemetery until his family members decide on a proper burial. Meanwhile, excavators have begun the next round of exhumations at the cemetery in hopes to identify more victims, according to a news release.
Intermountain Forensics continues to analyze DNA taken from the burial sites. They are also working to see if any of Daniel’s other relatives were connected to Tulsa or the massacre.
