Tulsa’s Paradise Baptist Church Displaying Photo Murals Of Massacre To Show Destruction

A Greenwood Church is displaying "photo murals" from the massacre, with the goal of showing people just how widespread the destruction was in 1921.

Artist Phil Buehler took historical panoramic photos and made them 10 feet by 30 feet so people can get an up-close look. 

Two of the four mural photos show Paradise Baptist Church. One during the massacre, and another of the church being rebuilt. Paradise was one of several churches destroyed, and one of only three still in the area today. 

Pamela Vickers is the Church Historian and has a personal connection to the photos because her grandparents survived the massacre.  

"It is what my grandmother and grandfather experienced at that time. They were, my grandmother was about 22 years old and my grandfather was about 35 years old," Vickers said. "And you know I think about, I have a granddaughter right now who's 22 and I can only imagine what she would have felt like, so that's what I think about." 

American National Red Cross originally took the photos, which are part of three collections: the Library of Congress National Archive, the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum and Oklahoma State University.  

The murals are placed on four exterior walls of the church, with a QR code available for people to scan so they can hear Vickers’ grandmother’s story.