(BUSINESS) Photograph of the Lane Bradley Gin Co in Redbird

Sale 2598 - Lot 165

Price Realized: $ 1,375

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(BUSINESS.) Photograph of the Lane & Bradley Gin Co. in Redbird, one of Oklahoma's all-Black towns. Photograph, 5 x 7 inches, captioned and signed by photographer L. Haynes in the negative; on possibly later plain mount; moderate wear including 1/2-inch chip on top edge of photograph. Redbird, OK, circa 1910s

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Redbird, OK was one of dozens of all-Black towns which sprung up in Oklahoma in the wake of the 1889 land rush. It is one of a handful which survives today. An agricultural community, its population peaked at 336 in 1920.

Iverson W. Lane (circa 1867-1952) came to Redbird in 1908, but in 1934 was denied the right to vote. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which struck down Oklahoma's discriminatory voting law in Lane v. Wilson. He and Solomon B. "Saub" Bradley were partners in two cotton gins, a grain elevator, and a general store. Here we see about a dozen workers and customers at the gin, most or all of them apparently Black, with bales of cotton awaiting processing.