Collection Spotlight: The Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection

The Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection honors the tireless labors of one of Oklahoma’s most important African American women leaders. As a researcher, writer, historian, educator, and community activist, Gates’ life work provides an invaluable window into the lived experiences of Black North Tulsans. Her passion for capturing a broad diversity of human stories that range from hope to despair, trauma to resilience, brings learners into contact with the memories of past generations. 

Gates preserved her work for future generations through photographs, correspondence, handwritten research notes, survivor inventories, newspaper and periodical clippings, and audio and video interviews. Within this collection one hears not only the painful and empowering remembrances of survivors and descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, but also the broader, vibrant histories of North Tulsa and Oklahoma placemaking. 

This collection is an extraordinary gift not merely to Gilcrease Museum but to the entire city of Tulsa and beyond. Gifted to the museum nearly 100 years after the Massacre, this collection presents a unique opportunity to honor and continue Gates’ legacy of putting generations of Tulsans into conversation with one another about collective memory, tragedy, justice, and resilience.