# @oaklandmuseumca on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DaYOmDXGS1k
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/75989793-oaklandmuseumca-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/45a4259296.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-07-04T17:00:31.000+00:00

## Caption

This Fourth of July, we reflect on the history of the United States over the past 250 years. "I AM AN AMERICAN"—the words painted across this Oakland storefront in 1942—remain a powerful statement on identity and belonging.⁠
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This photograph by Dorothea Lange shows the facade of a grocery store owned by a Japanese American man . A U.C. graduate born in California, the owner told Lange that he had the sign painted the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.⁠
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Just weeks later, following President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, he—along with more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, most of them U.S. citizens—was forced from his home and incarcerated because of his ancestry. Hired by the War Department to document the incarceration, Lange instead captured its profound human cost. Many of her photographs were censored and remained unseen for decades.⁠
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As we mark Independence Day, this image reminds us that the promise of liberty and equality must extend to everyone. Remembering stories like this is part of honoring our history and the values we continue striving to uphold.⁠
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📍On view in the Gallery of CA Art⁠
📸: Dorothea Lange, Japanese Owned Grocery Store, Oakland, March 30, 1942. Film negative. Gift of Paul S. Taylor © The Dorothea Lange Collection, the Oakland Museum of California.⁠
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#FourthofJuly #IndependenceDay #AmericanHistory #OaklandHistory #OaklandMuseumCA ⁠

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## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Kai Jefferson | @KaiJefferson_ | https://gondola.cc/KaiJefferson_ | Content Producer |
| Kai Jefferson | @KaiJefferson_ | https://gondola.cc/KaiJefferson_ | Social Media Manager |
| Kai Jefferson | @KaiJefferson_ | https://gondola.cc/KaiJefferson_ | Copywriter |

## Tags

independenceday, oaklandhistory, fourthofjuly, oaklandmuseumca, americanhistory

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