In 1926 the National Association of Real Estate Boards (NAREB, now National Association of Realtors) held their annual convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This map was used to promote the event showing how "all roads lead to Tulsa".
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| via Leventhal Map Center |
The map shows a happy, prosperous and mostly white nation welcoming growth in places with "plenty of room" like South Dakota.
Just five years before Tulsans had taken place in one of the worst racial massacres in history but that is completely brushed aside here in favor of showcasing a booming, modern city. The bright yellow text box at the bottom tells you that "you will find Tulsa and all the Oklahoma boys ready with the Old West-Indians, cowboys, bronchos-all brushed up pretty to show you the time of your life. And the New West with its oil wells and up to the minute skyscrapers will give you something to think about."
South Florida was one of the booming areas highlighted on this map with Miami and Tampa shown literally exploding.
The detail above shows two "binder boys" being kicked out of Florida. Binder boys were real estate speculators, house flippers in today's parlance, who would buy houses and quickly resell them for much more money, before their payments were even due. While this kind of practice was common in the real estate the problem wasn't what they did but "how they did it: without professionalism." More about the binder boys and the map as a whole can be found on this page from the Leventhal Center.
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