The remains of a teenager killed during the Tulsa Race Massacre 103 years ago were identified by genealogists as a young World War I veteran from Georgia.
C.L. Daniel, a young man whose exact age is unclear, was one of hundreds murdered when the thriving Greenwood District in Tulsa, Okla., also known as Black Wall Street, was torched in 1921 by a white mob intent on erasing decades of black history and success.
Daniel, who hailed from the city of Newman, Ga. had been passing through Tulsa so he could get home to his mother when the riot broke out.
He had served in the military in World War I before being injured and honorably discharged.
In the decades since, identification initiatives have incidentally connected long-lost relatives across state lines.
“In August 2023, I got this email with my grandparents’ names, my parents’ names. It was a letter saying we might be connected to the Tulsa race massacre,” Angela Poythress, who was born and raised in Newnan, told FOX5 Atlanta.
A forensic team had been working tirelessly to track down relatives of victims, including those traced back to Daniel.
Alex Whittler, an anchor at FOX 5 Atlanta, bolstered their efforts by connecting anyone open to cold calls with the team for further DNA testing for confirmation. At the time, they were specifically looking for the surnames Daniel, Meriweather, Bohannon, and Vaughn.
Andrew Poythress had already taken a DNA test before the forensics team reached him. He was found to be a “complete match” with Daniel.
There were even positive matches well outside of Georgia, though.
“They had been trying to reach a number of ‘Stacy Daniels.’ My grandfather is Stacy Daniel. That’s what led them to me,” Stacy “Daniel” Brown, a woman from Florida, told the outlet.
The matches confirmed that Daniel Brown and the Poythresses were cousins, making Daniel their uncle.
They were all able to trace their ancestry back to Amanda Meriweather, Daniel’s widowed mother of seven. She had tried to seek confirmation of her son’s death and receive compensation for his discharge, but never heard a word.
“He wrote letters to the VA saying, ‘I want to get home. I need help to get home to my mother. She needs me.’ He left a forwarding address in Wyoming — that’s where he was going next before he was killed in the race massacre,” Angela told the outlet.
Daniel was officially laid to rest during the fall in a ceremony organized by former Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. He flew out all of Daniel’s remaining descendants to properly lay the veteran to rest after more than a century.
They are hoping to eventually bring Daniel’s remains to the cemetery where his parents are buried — but the grounds have been mismanaged over the years, leaving the terrain unstable and filled with sunken headstones.
So, the descendants are coming together for yet another project and are endeavoring to refurbish the decrepit cemetery to return Daniel to his family’s side for good.
“Don’t worry, Grandpa. We’re going to get it straight,” Andrew told the outlet while peering down at the overgrown grave.
The forensic team is continuing to identify more massacre victims and are looking for families in Louisiana, Alabama, North Carolina, and Texas with connections to the listed names.