- Created by
- Unidentified
- Owned by
- Ross, J. Kavin, American
- Date
- 1921
- Medium
- silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper, with ink on paper
- Dimensions
- H x W: 3 7/16 × 5 7/16 in. (8.7 × 13.8 cm)
- Caption
- On May 31 and June 1, 1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, mobs of white residents brutally attacked the African American community of Greenwood, colloquially known as "Black Wall Street," in the deadliest racial massacre in U.S. history. Amidst the violence, both white rioters and the Oklahoma National Guard rounded up black residents of Greenwood and forced them to detention centers. More than 6,000 African Americans were interned at the Convention Hall, the Tulsa County Fairgrounds, and the baseball stadium McNulty Park. Some were held for as long as eight days.
- Photo postcards of the Tulsa Race Massacre were widely distributed following the massacre in 1921. Like postcards depicting lynchings, these souvenir cards were powerful declarations of white racial power and control. Decades later, the cards served as evidence for community members working to recover the forgotten history of the riot and secure justice for its victims and their descendants.
- Description
- A sepia-toned photographic postcard of National Guardsmen with a machine gun mounted on the back of a flat-bed truck on the streets of Tulsa, Oklahoma during the Tulsa Race Massacre. Several soldiers are on the back of the truck with the weapon, one standing and one kneeling to the left of the gun and one at the gun sight. Several other soldiers march next to the truck, backs to the camera. Other vehicles and soldiers are visible on the street in the background of the image. Written in white at the bottom of the image is [NATIONAL GUARD / MACHINE GUN CREW / DURING TULSA RACE RIOT 6-1-21]. The verso is marked [POST CARD] at the top with spaces for [CORRESPONDENCE] and [ADDRESS] and an AZO stamp box in the top right corner.
- Place depicted
- Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Media Arts-Photography
- Type
- gelatin silver prints
- photographic postcards
- Topic
- Communities
- Military
- Photography
- Race relations
- Race riots
- Tulsa Race Massacre
- U.S. History, 1919-1933
- Violence
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2011.175.11
- Restrictions & Rights
- Public domain
- Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.