<I>Scene at Convention Hall (Tulsa Race Riot June 1st 1921)</I>
date: label: Date
content: 1921
name: label: Created by
content: Unidentified
label: Owned by
content: J. Kavin Ross, American
label: Subject of
content: Unidentified Man or Men
notes: label: Caption
content: 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. This unidentified individual was just one of the many victims. The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics recorded the official death toll as 36, but it is now believed it may have been as high as 300 dead with many more missing and wounded.
label: Caption
content: 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.
label: Caption
content: 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.
label: Description
content: A sepia-toned photographic postcard depicting the body of an unidentified victim and a large crowd at the Convention Hall during the Tulsa Race Massacre. In the foreground of the image, a white man stands on the back of a flat-bed truck. On the truck bed, a black man sits next to the prone body of an unidentified victim. In the background a column of African Americans with their hands raised in surrender are corraled into the Convention Hall by several white men. Several onlookers stand in the top left corner near another entrance to the hall. Along the bottom of the image, written into the negative and appearing as white text is [TULSA RACE RIOT JUST 1st 1921 / SCENE AT CONVENTION HALL]. 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: label: Place depicted
content: Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Communities
label: Topic
content: Photography
label: Topic
content: Race relations
label: Topic
content: Race riots
label: Topic
content: Tulsa Race Massacre
label: Topic
content: U.S. History, 1919-1933
label: Topic
content: Violence
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Photographs and Still Images
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2011.175.5
objectType: label: Type
content: gelatin silver prints
label: Type
content: photographic postcards
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Public domain
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper, with ink on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 3 7/16 × 5 7/16 in. (8.7 × 13.8 cm)