2-832-080 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

A charred penny from the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921. On 31 May-1 June 1 1921, mobs of White residents, many of them deputised and given weapons by city officials, attacked Black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, The attacks, carried out on the ground and from private aircraft, burned and destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the neighbourhood known as "Black Wall Street - at the time the wealthiest Black community in the United States. More than 800 people were admitted to hospitals, and as many as 6,000 Black residents were interned in large facilities, many of them for several days. The event is among "the single worst incident[s] of racial violence in American history". The penny is black, dark gray, red and brown. The embossing on the front of the penny is still visible. The word "Liberty" is on the left side next to a portrait of President Abraham Lincoln in profile. "1915" appears next to Lincoln on the right side. The back side of the coin is melted with only the word "ONE" visible.