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elemomi's review
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I think this book is likely best read in sequence with Ellsworth’s Death in a Promised Land, but the last segment of the book was especially interesting.
jenna310's review
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
4.0
A comprehensive and informative story about the Oklahoma race riot.
hskrkelle's review
5.0
This book was a well-documented account of not only the Tulsa massacre itself, but of efforts afterwards through many decades of individuals who tried to bring proper attention to what happened in 1921.
maralyons's review
5.0
One of the best books I have read in 2021. The Ground Breaking synthesizes accounts of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 through extensive research and interviews and leads up to the search and discovery of a mass grave related to the tragedy. It illustrates the crucial role historians and archeologists can play in uncovering past atrocities.
gjones19's review
4.0
I’ve wanted to learn more about the Tulsa Massacre for a while, so this was a fascinating read. Ellsworth has been studying it for a long time and shared not only about the events of the massacre but also the process of finding sources, the complicity of silence among Tulsa residents and institutions, and the search for mass graves.
adam_weasel's review
3.0
Was an interesting subject but without a map of Greenwood or any photos it made it difficult to keep track of all the locations and people. The author also uses the same narrative tricks over and over which gets tiresome - one sentence "grabber" lines meant to create drama at the start of each chapter:
"She was going to make things happen."
"He didn't know how much things were about to change."
Its meant to keep the reader engaged but by the end of the book it just felt tired.
Honestly, if you want to learn about Black Wall Street, there are better books out there.
"She was going to make things happen."
"He didn't know how much things were about to change."
Its meant to keep the reader engaged but by the end of the book it just felt tired.
Honestly, if you want to learn about Black Wall Street, there are better books out there.
karnaconverse's review
5.0
The title of Chapter 12 says it best: Reminding a City of Her Sins
In the 100 years since the night of May 31, 1921, the words used to describe events that occurred in the Tulsa, Oklahoma business district known as Greenwood or "Black Wall Street," have changed: from riot, mob, uprising, race riot, race war, disaster, and pogrom to what is now commonly referred to as a race massacre.
Scott Ellsworth, historian and lecturer at the University of Michigan, first wrote about the massacre that lasted less than twenty-four hours for his senior thesis when he was at Reed College in the late 1970s. That paper turned into a book, Death in a Promised Land; it was the first comprehensive history ever published and is filled with images taken before and after the fires and with first-hand accounts of the racial tensions that existed in the 1920s.
In The Ground Breaking, Ellsworth digs even deeper into the days and months surrounding the massacre, bringing to light efforts government, law, and newspaper officials took immediately following—and have taken in the years since—to change the story and in some cases, to remove it from their files and the public's memory. He's currently helping lead efforts to locate the unmarked graves of the victims, a number that continues to be unknown but could be in the hundreds.
What is known is that on May 31, 1921, a nineteen-year-old black man was arrested after he was seen running away from a building he'd entered to use the restroom. No charges are filed but within hours, there's talk of a lynching and by evening, more than three hundred white Tulsans have gathered outside the courthouse; later that night, the number grows to two thousand. A group of African American WWI veterans head to the courthouse to help the sheriff defend the young black man. Both groups are armed and shots are fired. The next day, Greenwood is burned to the ground, Black Tulsans are rounded up, and graves are dug. There are a few months of relief efforts but Greenwood would never be the same.
Ellsworth grew up in Tulsa in the 1960s. He notes that he first became aware of the riot, at age 12, while reading microfilmed newspapers at the local library but that he knew "virtually nothing about the tumultuous events" when he left for college in 1972. That, to me, is as strong a statement as anything and begs readers to reflect: How do we address the evil within our histories and what does justice look like?
Note: I encourage you to also read Death in a Promised Land—the photos make as strong a statement as the words.
In the 100 years since the night of May 31, 1921, the words used to describe events that occurred in the Tulsa, Oklahoma business district known as Greenwood or "Black Wall Street," have changed: from riot, mob, uprising, race riot, race war, disaster, and pogrom to what is now commonly referred to as a race massacre.
Scott Ellsworth, historian and lecturer at the University of Michigan, first wrote about the massacre that lasted less than twenty-four hours for his senior thesis when he was at Reed College in the late 1970s. That paper turned into a book, Death in a Promised Land; it was the first comprehensive history ever published and is filled with images taken before and after the fires and with first-hand accounts of the racial tensions that existed in the 1920s.
In The Ground Breaking, Ellsworth digs even deeper into the days and months surrounding the massacre, bringing to light efforts government, law, and newspaper officials took immediately following—and have taken in the years since—to change the story and in some cases, to remove it from their files and the public's memory. He's currently helping lead efforts to locate the unmarked graves of the victims, a number that continues to be unknown but could be in the hundreds.
What is known is that on May 31, 1921, a nineteen-year-old black man was arrested after he was seen running away from a building he'd entered to use the restroom. No charges are filed but within hours, there's talk of a lynching and by evening, more than three hundred white Tulsans have gathered outside the courthouse; later that night, the number grows to two thousand. A group of African American WWI veterans head to the courthouse to help the sheriff defend the young black man. Both groups are armed and shots are fired. The next day, Greenwood is burned to the ground, Black Tulsans are rounded up, and graves are dug. There are a few months of relief efforts but Greenwood would never be the same.
Ellsworth grew up in Tulsa in the 1960s. He notes that he first became aware of the riot, at age 12, while reading microfilmed newspapers at the local library but that he knew "virtually nothing about the tumultuous events" when he left for college in 1972. That, to me, is as strong a statement as anything and begs readers to reflect: How do we address the evil within our histories and what does justice look like?
Note: I encourage you to also read Death in a Promised Land—the photos make as strong a statement as the words.
tonymacky's review
4.0
like other reviewers, while expecting more of a historical account of both the Massacre and the process of reconciliation (or attempts thereof), this is written much more in a narrative fashion, especially from Ellsworth's perspective. moreover, it feels like half the story: the latter third talks of so much promise and progress, especially regarding reparations and the close inspection of mass grave bodies, but the book suddenly wraps up very quickly. furthermore, being narrative based, there are no footnotes, and while there are references in the 'notes' section at the end, it is hard to keep track of which quotes are from where.
overall though, still a fascinating insight into the exposure of the Tulsa Race Massacre both to Tulsa and the wider world, and does a good job of expressing the mass cover-up
overall though, still a fascinating insight into the exposure of the Tulsa Race Massacre both to Tulsa and the wider world, and does a good job of expressing the mass cover-up