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  • Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre /]Cbrandy Colbert by Brandy Colbert book cover
  • Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre /]Cbrandy Colbert by Brandy Colbert book cover
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Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre /]Cbrandy Colbert

by Brandy Colbert

Tulsa’s history and its lasting legacy

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Tulsa’s history and its lasting legacy

Brandy Colbert’s nonfiction account examines the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and the forces surrounding the destruction of Greenwood, a thriving Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It places the event within a broader history of racial violence, tracing connections to Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement, and continuing struggles for justice and accountability. The book also considers how media coverage and the history Americans tell about their country have shaped public knowledge of the massacre. Its scope links a specific act of violence to questions about historical memory and the longer patterns that helped make it possible.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Teens and young adults interested in U.S. history and nonfiction.
  • Readers seeking context on the Tulsa Race Massacre and the history of Greenwood.
  • Readers interested in racial violence, historical memory, and struggles for justice.

Themes

The Tulsa Race MassacreRacial violence and white supremacyBlack economic and political advancementHistorical memory and public knowledgeJustice and accountability

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A searing new work of nonfiction from award-winning author Brandy Colbert about the history and legacy of one of the most deadly and destructive acts of racial violence in American history: the Tulsa Race Massacre. Winner, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.

In the early morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob marched across the train tracks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and into its predominantly Black Greenwood District--a thriving, affluent neighborhood known as America's Black Wall Street. They brought with them firearms, gasoline, and explosives.

In a few short hours, they'd razed thirty-five square blocks to the ground, leaving hundreds dead. The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in US history. But how did it come to pass? What exactly happened? And why are the events unknown to so many of us today?

These are the questions that award-winning author Brandy Colbert seeks to answer in this unflinching nonfiction account of the Tulsa Race Massacre. In examining the tension that was brought to a boil by many factors--white resentment of Black economic and political advancement, the resurgence of white supremacist groups, the tone and perspective of the media, and more--a portrait is drawn of an event singular in its devastation, but not in its kind. It is part of a legacy of white violence that can be traced from our country's earliest days through Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement in the mid-twentieth century, and the fight for justice and accountability Black Americans still face today.

The Tulsa Race Massacre has long failed to fit into the story Americans like to tell themselves about the history of their country. This book, ambitious and intimate in turn, explores the ways in which the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre is the story of America--and by showing us who we are, points to a way forward.

YALSA Honor Award for Excellence in Nonfiction

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