Below is a brief biography, as written by the genealogists at Intermountain Forensics:
C. L. Daniel, born on July 14, 1896, in Newnan, Coweta, to Thomas and Amanda Meriwether Daniel, passed away tragically in 1921. He was one of seven sons born to Thomas and Amanda. C.L.'s brothers were Smith Daniel, Eddie Daniel, Stacy Daniel, Roy Daniel, Rufus Daniel, and John Daniel. Sadly, C. L. was preceded in death by two of his brothers, with his younger brother John dying in childhood in 1910.
After the early death of their father, the Daniel family faced significant challenges. Their mother, Amanda, became a widow by 1910 and worked tirelessly to provide for her sons. Despite the hardships, the Daniel family together persevered, and records show that by 1920, Amanda proudly owned their home, a testament to their hard work and resilience.
C. L. Daniel served his country during World War I. He was stationed at Camp Gordon, Georgia, where he served in the 47th Company, 12th Training Battalion, and the 406th Rescue Labor Battalion, Company B, as an Army Private. During his service there, he sustained injuries and spent 19 days in the Base Hospital at Camp Gordon. Despite these challenges, C.L. was honorably discharged, having served with dedication for nine months and sixteen days.
After his discharge, C.L. embarked on a journey across the United States, displaying an adventurous spirit and a longing to explore the country. In a heartfelt letter to the Army requesting veteran benefits, he expressed his commitment to the war effort and his ongoing struggle with the injuries he sustained. He sought assistance to secure employment and sustenance, hoping to return home to his beloved mother in Georgia.
Tragically, C.L.'s journey home was cut short. Sometime after February 1921, while enroute to Georgia from Ogden, Utah, he stopped in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was there that he became a victim of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a tragic and shameful chapter in American history. Correspondence from his mother, Congressman Albert Sidney Camp, the Army and others in the years following confirm that C.L. was among those killed during the massacre.
C.L. Daniel was a young man of immense courage and dedication, who served his country honorably and loved his family deeply. His adventurous spirit and determination to overcome adversity will always be remembered. He leaves behind a legacy of resilience and bravery, forever etched in the hearts of those who knew and loved him.
https://www.cityoftulsa.org/government/mayor-of-tulsa/1921-graves-investigation/genealogy-process/
Randy Krehbiel Tulsa Daily World July 12, 2024
A partially disabled World War I veteran trying to get home to his mother has been identified as a 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victim buried anonymously in the city's Oaklawn Cemetery, researchers and Mayor G.T. Bynum said Friday.
C.L. Daniel, a Georgia native whose name had never before come to the attention of race massacre researchers, is the first person identified through a project launched five years ago by Bynum to find unmarked burials from the May 31-June 1 calamity in which more than 35 square blocks of Tulsa's Black Greenwood District were destroyed by whites and dozens and perhaps hundreds of people were killed.
DNA comparisons, genealogical research and two letters in the National Archives led Intermountain Forensics, a firm working with the city, to Daniel. The DNA and genealogy narrowed the search to two brothers with that last name.
One of the letters, a 1936 missive from a Georgia attorney to the U.S. Veterans Administration on behalf of Daniel's mother, identified Daniel as almost certainly the occupant of what archeologists denote as Burial #3 in the old Black paupers' section of The letter, from Stanford Arnold of Newnan, Georgia, on behalf of Amanda Daniel, seeks "any benefits that be due her" because of her son's service and honorable discharge because of injury.
"She has no discharge (papers) and is going to have difficulty in establishing his death," Arnold wrote. "C.L. was killed in a race riot in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921 according to best information she has furnished me." It is unclear whether the VA responded or if Amanda Daniel, whom the lawyer described as "in destitute circumstances," received any assistance.
The National Archives search also produced a letter written by C.L. Daniel, apparently to the Army, in February 1921 from Ogden, Utah. In poignant language, Daniel said his legs pained him, apparently from an injury suffered in the Army, and made finding work difficult. Daniel says he spent 19 days in the Camp Gordon, Georgia, hospital.
"(F)or some time I have traveled this country over and now sufriend (suffering) with complance (complaints) that (I) was in the base hospitle (hospital) with," Daniel wrote, his spelling and grammar a testament to the sort of education many Americans and especially Black Americans received in the early 20th century. "(D)ear sir, please send me a nof (enough) money to git me a job and to eat with till I Get better."
Daniel's burial place was among the first uncovered in 2020 by the team headed by state archeologist Kary Stackelbeck and University of Florida forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield. Its proximity to the headstones of two known massacre victims, Reuben Everett and Eddie Lockard, and to an area in which other remains were similarly buried, make the researchers reasonably certain they have found the "original 18" — 18 Black massacre victims reported at the time to have been buried in Oaklawn Cemetery but without information about their exact location — and two sets of remains with signs of gunshot wounds.
Stubblefield said a cause of death could not be determined for Daniel, whose remains were exhumed in 2021 and later reinterred in the same grave. She said it appeared that the body had been scrunched into a coffin too small for him.
Bynum indicated that Daniel's family, whose members were not identified, have not decided how they want to proceed with final burial. "We're going to work with them every step of the way," Bynum said. "Whatever they decide to do with the remains, the city of Tulsa is fully supportive of that."
Daniel's identification accounts for one of several of the Original 18 listed on death certificates as "unknown." It also has reinvigorated the project.
At Friday's press conference, Bynum said the archeological team will return to Oaklawn on July 22. Stackelbeck indicated that this phase will last more than a week and will concentrate on the Original 18 area. "We now feel doubly confident of the criteria we've been using to know which ones are good candidates for exhumation," she said.
Danny Hellwig, director of Intermountain's Laboratory Development, said Daniel's identification is really the first of its kind. "This hasn't really been done before," Hellwig said. "We've been learning through the process. As we've learned and adapted, we're getting better at it. … We hope this will provide some confidence and context and maybe a lot more trust so that we can expand on this."
Identification relies on voluntarily submitted DNA, public databases and families' willingness to answer questions about relatives or ancestors. In Daniel's case, researchers said, extended family members were mostly unaware of the circumstances of his death, if they knew of him at all. Intermountain's Alison Wilde, who handles the genealogical side, said many living family members did not know each other, much less the story of a great uncle who died without direct descendants more than a century ago.
Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum announced today the first identification of a Tulsa Race Massacre victim since the City started the physical part of its 1921 Graves Investigation five years ago. The identification is a man by the name of C. L. Daniel, a World War 1 U.S. Army Veteran whose next of kin’s DNA is tied with Burial 3 from the 2021 excavation at Oaklawn Cemetery.
The discovery is the first to reveal the name of a Tulsa Race Massacre victim outside of those previously noted in the Oklahoma Commission’s 2001 Report. Among those names were Reuben Everett and Eddie Lockard, whose headstones are the only known markers of massacre victims and are located near the grave that C. L. is connected to.
“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 this week,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “I want to express Tulsa’s profound gratitude to everyone who brought us to today - from the local historians and the leaders who developed the 2001 State Commission Report to our team of experts, who are pouring their hearts and minds into this search today. I want to thank my colleagues on the Tulsa City Council and the citizens of Tulsa for continuing to fund this search. I hope this generation of Tulsans can appreciate that you helped this family find their relative after he was missing for 103 years.
While the circumstances of C. L.’s death are unknown, his connection to the Tulsa Race Massacre was confirmed this week when Intermountain Forensics, the laboratory assisting the City with DNA and genealogical analysis, was able to recover records from the National Archives. Contained in the records was the most convincing piece of evidence tying him to the Tulsa Race Massacre – a letter from C. L.’s family attorney written to the U.S. Veteran’s Administration on behalf of C. L.’s mother regarding C. L.’s survivor benefits.
In part, the letter states “C. L. was killed in a race riot in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921.” Receipt of this letter confirms that C. L. – whose next of kin share a significant portion of their DNA with Burial 3 - is a Tulsa Race Massacre victim not previously identified.
"As genealogists, our daily work centers on families and communities,” said Alison Wilde, Genealogy Case manager for the City’s 1921 Graves Investigation project. “I know I speak for everyone at Intermountain Forensics, and our genealogy partners, when I say we are continually humbled by the Greenwood and Tulsa Race Massacre descendant communities, as they protect the history of, and serve as guardians of, the unknown victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Today the family members of Mr. C. L. Daniel join those communities. I am confident his next of kin, and the memory of their loved one, are in good hands.
Records from the National Archives also show that C. L. Daniel, a black male in his 20s, was drafted to the U.S. Army in 1918 and was later discharged in December of 1919. Records also show that C. L. was not married and did not have any children at the time of his death.
Based on letters written by C. L. Daniel in February of 1921, C. L. was in Utah working to find a job and a way back home to his mother in Georgia. While it is unclear why C. L. was in Tulsa, the notes from his mother’s attorney and another letter – one from a U.S. Congressman from Georgia – corroborate one another in that C. L. died in 1921 in Oklahoma. The second letter states in part that “C. L. Daniel was killed in Oklahoma some time shortly after his discharge.
C. L. Daniel is connected to Burial 3, which is located in what has historically been referenced as the 'Original 18' area. It’s of note that when Burial 3 was uncovered in 2021, forensic anthropologists did not note any apparent trauma associated with the burial. But with 100-year-old remains, finding trauma can be difficult.
Using data submitted through GEDmatch and Family Tree DNA, which are both online services that allow DNA testers to be compared to the DNA recovered through the 1921 Graves Investigation, Intermountain Forensics was able to contact several individuals who share a portion of their DNA with Burial 3. Utilizing DNA testers as a starting point, Intermountain Forensics researched and contacted people and reference tested willing participants until they were able to narrow their focus to the Daniel family. This is a process that took a significant amount of time. Using genealogical research from family lines of those DNA reference testers, three brothers from around the time of the Tulsa Race Massacre were identified.
While Burial 3 is likely that of C. L. Daniel, the only member of his family we know was in Tulsa, Burial 3 is C. L. or one of his brothers (due to the amount of DNA shared among siblings). Regardless of C. L.’s connection to Burial 3, he is confirmed to be a Tulsa Race Massacre victim due to the documentation found this week. Work is ongoing to determine the stories of C. L.’s siblings.
"This is the first time that any unit of American government has intentionally sought to locate and identify the remains of historic victims of racial violence in the United States,” said Scott Ellsworth, the historian and Tulsa native who launched the search for the unmarked graves in 1999. “That the DNA and genealogical team was able to identify Mr. Daniel's remains is both an astonishing research achievement, and a crucial step in addressing the harm that was done more than one hundred years ago."
Family Notification & Next Steps
The City of Tulsa and Intermountain Forensics are thankful for all of the DNA testers and now-confirmed next of kin family members who engaged with the work and felt comfortable sharing their stories. Their willingness to participate in the process has led to the first of hopefully many identifications in the 1921 Graves Investigation.
Prior to media and public notification, the City of Tulsa and Intermountain Forensics contacted the next of kin. Due to the sensitive nature of the Investigation and out of respect for the families, their names, locations, and other personal information are not being shared at this time.
The City of Tulsa is working to solidify next steps when it comes to organizing proper burial for C. L. Specifics will depend entirely on the wishes of C. L.’s next of kin. Because the findings are new and the circumstances regarding each next of kin family member is different, this process is expected to take some time. It’s of note that C. L. is still resting in the spot where he was found in Oaklawn Cemetery.
The City of Tulsa remains committed to providing the families and descendants of each burial from the 1921 Graves Investigation with the support they need to assist in the proper burial, potential repatriation, and eventual memorialization of their ancestors.
Fourth Excavation Planned at Oaklawn Cemetery
Due to recent findings and following receipt of the latest Oaklawn Cemetery summary report and proposed next steps from the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey, the City of Tulsa and field experts will begin a fourth excavation at Oaklawn Cemetery starting the week of July 22.
The summary report, which can be found at www.cityoftulsa.org/1921graves, details several new recent findings from forensic anthropologists about the remains at Oaklawn Cemetery, the largest updates of which pertain to two burials:
Burial 45 - After continued research into exhumed remains from past excavations, Burial 45 from the 2022 excavation appears to have been exposed to burning postmortem. The burial was a male in a plain wooden casket too small for his length.
Burial 101 – Continued research also suggests Burial 101 from the September 2023 excavation may have evidence of a possible gunshot wound. In their research, the forensic team detected metallic particles near the humerus, potentially consistent with a gunshot wound, but not definitive.
Currently, there are four burials with evidence of trauma or possible trauma. Burials 42 (gunshot victim from second excavation), 45, 101, and 27 (gunshot victim from first excavation) are not all located next to one another and were found in three separate areas. Considering the evidence that Burial 3 is C. L. Daniel or one of his siblings, there is a high likelihood that any remains with trauma in previously excavated areas could be additional Tulsa Race Massacre victims.
https://www.cityoftulsa.org/press-room/major-discovery-made-in-1921-graves-investigation-c-l-daniel-confirmed-as-first-victim-identified-from-city-s-yearslong-investigation/