Searchers find five more Tulsa Race Massacre coffins at mass grave

Crews searching for victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre discovered five more coffins Thursday.

The group, which began excavating portions of Tulsa’s Oaklawn Cemetery last year, completed most of its work this week, finding a total of 20 coffins at the mass gravesite, The Associated Press reported.

In October, searchers uncovered 12 sets of remains in coffins, but local authorities did not yet confirm if they are those of massacre victims, according to the AP.

City officials told the news outlet that exhumation of the discovered remains is expected to begin Monday.

Kary Stackelbeck, a state archaeologist, predicted that at least 30 bodies could be at the site.

Previously, Oklahoma declared the death toll from the massacre to be only 36 people, including 12 who were white. Most historians now however estimate the toll could be from 75 to 300 people.

The Tulsa Race Massacre occurred in 1921, when Tulsa’s Black neighborhood of Greenwood, also known as Black Wall Street, was destroyed by a white mob.