Phoebe Stubblefield takes part in an excavation of Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa in October 2020. (Photo courtesy of the City of Tulsa)
100 years after the Tulsa Race Massacre, a UF Researcher Shares Her Search for Truth
This year marks the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, when a prosperous Black community saw hundreds of lives taken and their neighborhood destroyed by a white mob. In May 1921, white rioters descended on the Tulsa, Oklahoma, district of Greenwood — known as “Black Wall Street” — burning homes and businesses, killing as many as 300 people, and leaving the area in ruins.
UF forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield is working to uncover the truth of the tragic event, whose history has been suppressed over the decades. Stubblefield, interim director of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the University of Florida, has excavated mass graves from riot, in hopes of opening an honest conversation about what happened. Stubblefield has her own connection to the tragedy: Her parents grew up in Tulsa, and she visited the city every summer as a child.
On the 100-year anniversary of the massacre, Stubblefield has shared her insights and discoveries in interviews, opinion pieces, profiles and more. In the links below, learn more about her work and the Tulsa Race Massacre.
1A: The Tulsa Race Massacre, 100 Years Later
Overheard at National Geographic Podcast: A Reckoning in Tulsa
CNN: A century after the Tulsa race massacre, ‘you still have a community that’s struggling
BBC: Tulsa massacre: The search for victims, 100 years on
The Hill: My search for the Tulsa Massacre’s missing dead
CBS News: Scholars excavate scene of Tulsa Race Massacre to “reconstruct a suppressed history”
Axios: Uncovering the Tulsa Race Massacre after 100 years
UF Explore: Digging for the Truth
Unstoppable Minds podcast: Shedding New Light on a Lost Chapter of American History
