Broadside Announcing Martial Law During 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre to Auction

A broadside announcing martial law during the 1921 Tulsa Race massacre will be offered in Heritage Auctions' April 25-26 Americana & Political auction.

The racially fueled 1921 massacre in Tulsa is the worst in American history. The once prosperous Greenwood district known locally as 'Black Wall Street' was reduced to ashes within a few hours, leaving at leat 300 people dead, and forcing between 6,000 and 10,000 residents to relocate. Immeasurable damage was done to homes, businesses and property. Oklahoma officials declared martial law as part of the effort to restore order.

The events are believed to have been in response to an alleged interaction between a Black man and a white woman in an elevator. Sensationalized newspaper reports fueled racial tensions, triggering a violent response from both Black and white communities in Tulsa which at the time was deeply segregated. On the night of May 31, the night of the alleged interaction, white citizens drove into Greenwood and began indiscriminately killing Black residents, looting homes and businesses. Death estimates ranged from 300 to 800, with thousands left homeless.

“This broadside is enormously important because it represents tangible proof of the worst act of racially fueled domestic violence in this country’s history,” said Ray Farina, Historical Consignment Director at Heritage Auctions. “It also serves to officially acknowledge state government’s role in the widespread systemic failures that allowed such an atrocity to occur.”

City officials not only obstructed rebuilding efforts but also imposed restrictive zoning laws which ensured that Greenwood would never recover fully. Legal efforts over subsequent decades failed, leaving survivors and their descendants without restitution. The Justice Department has produced an official account of the massacre, confirming that the attack on Greenwood was a deliberate, organized assault.

“More than 100 years after the fact, justice has not been served,” added Farina. “Rather than protecting Black residents, the martial law declared in this broadside disarmed Greenwood’s survivors, many of whom had attempted to defend their homes and businesses.

“Three lawsuits filed between 2021 and 2024 by the last living survivors, now deceased, of those who died in the massacre, were dismissed in court. To date there have been no reparations for damages from loss of life or property, and nobody has ever been found guilty or been held accountable for their role in the massacre. Only recently has a Federal government commission to investigate the massacre released a scathing report of their findings. The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 remains a sober reminder of what can happen when racial prejudice and intolerance are allowed to go unchecked. We must never forget what happened there so we may never allow it to happen again.”

Other highlights of the auction include: 

• perhaps the only copy of a 1746 recruitment broadside for the invasion of Canada, in which acting upon a letter from the Duke of Newcastle with authorization from King George II, Massachusetts residents are asked to raise 3,000 volunteers “ to attempt the immediate reduction of Canada”
• a WWII two-sided silk map used by Captain Robert A. Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay on the Hiroshima bombing mission
• a Wilmer Stultz and Amelia Earhart Flight of the “Friendship” signed dinner menu program
• an Abraham Lincoln baseball themed Currier & Ives cartoon titled The National Game. Three 'Outs' and One 'Run.' Abraham Winning the Ball