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biv1949's review
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Wow wow wow. This book was incredible. The stories written about Greenwood members and descendants were so well written and I was engaged throughout the book. I cried multiple times throughout and really felt like I got to know some of the members of the community. I feel like I learned so much about the history of Greenwood and some of the ways that institutionalized racism existed and still exists in the US.
So glad that I was able to read this book, highly recommend.
So glad that I was able to read this book, highly recommend.
adamcshanks's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
gusreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
4.0
A vital book about the Tulsa Race Massacre that focuses on the aftermath rather than the tragedy itself. The book exhaustively chronicles the efforts to rebuild, the many enduring challenges of the Greenwood neighborhood and its residents, and the ongoing effort to secure meaningful reparations. At times due to the level of detail the book is a bit of a slog to get through and shrinking it by 100 pages or so would make it more accessible to more readers, which is essential as most Americans only have a passing knowledge of the massacre at best. Regardless it’s a deeply informative book and one I highly recommend to everyone.
cashleigh98's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
I cried my eyes out reading parts of this book. I love the way Luckerson takes so much care with the people, past and present, who inhabited Greenwood. In particular, Mrs. Loula Williams, a Black woman who owned and operated not one but two businesses. We follow her accomplishments and the way that the massacre upends her life and dreams. When at the end, her descendants visit her grave to care for her plot, I BAWLED.
I loved the way he centers the Black women who were pivotal for the formation of Black Wall Street and for the movement to preserve and restore the Greenwood community to its former glory and its determined search for justice for the survivors and descendants. Luckerson also does a remarkable job weaving past and present, tracking all the through lines to the modern political landscape where the reverberating effects of the massacre and resulting predatory legislation and government funded programs are being debated. He is a truly gifted writer— constructing a book with this amount of cited information that still manages to captivate in its narrative story-telling is mind-blowing to me.
I’m so glad that I read this, and I hope you will too. It’s extremely dense with information, and of course, some events are hard to read about, but I think a main takeaway from the book is that looking back at the past and learning, acknowledging, and making actionable change to repair the damage is how we can heal. Sometimes that means reading shit that makes you really sad or incredibly angry, but it’s still worth it. Highly recommend for anyone and everyone.
I loved the way he centers the Black women who were pivotal for the formation of Black Wall Street and for the movement to preserve and restore the Greenwood community to its former glory and its determined search for justice for the survivors and descendants. Luckerson also does a remarkable job weaving past and present, tracking all the through lines to the modern political landscape where the reverberating effects of the massacre and resulting predatory legislation and government funded programs are being debated. He is a truly gifted writer— constructing a book with this amount of cited information that still manages to captivate in its narrative story-telling is mind-blowing to me.
I’m so glad that I read this, and I hope you will too. It’s extremely dense with information, and of course, some events are hard to read about, but I think a main takeaway from the book is that looking back at the past and learning, acknowledging, and making actionable change to repair the damage is how we can heal. Sometimes that means reading shit that makes you really sad or incredibly angry, but it’s still worth it. Highly recommend for anyone and everyone.
rosa_inverno's review against another edition
5.0
I picked this up after hearing an interview with the author on the "Here's Where It Gets Interesting" Podcast. (Go give it a listen!)
An interesting thing to note: I was expecting a history of Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood and the massacre that occurred there. I was somewhat surprised when we got to what I believed would be the climax of the book in the first third. "What is the rest of the book about?" I thought briefly. Well, that's the key thing about this book. It's as much about what took place that night in 1921 as it is the aftermath, the intergenerational trauma and its effect on survivors, their descendants, and the community for the decades following the event itself -- the aftershocks were just as important and this discussion of them is what sets this book apart a historical analysis.
An interesting thing to note: I was expecting a history of Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood and the massacre that occurred there. I was somewhat surprised when we got to what I believed would be the climax of the book in the first third. "What is the rest of the book about?" I thought briefly. Well, that's the key thing about this book. It's as much about what took place that night in 1921 as it is the aftermath, the intergenerational trauma and its effect on survivors, their descendants, and the community for the decades following the event itself -- the aftershocks were just as important and this discussion of them is what sets this book apart a historical analysis.