Postcard, "Alligator Bait, Florida," circa 1930

Although degrading and offensive, this postcard with an image of an alligator eyeing African-American children as a meal could be purchased by whites vacationing in Florida in the 1930s. This supposedly "humorous" souvenir dehumanized blacks implying they were good only as alligator bait. Similar images only reinforced the prejudicial view among whites that African Americans were inferior, second class citizens.