Reviews

Built from the Fire by Victor Luckerson

lorena_rose's review

dark informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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.

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.

cdhotwing's review against another edition

informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

andiesmith's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective

5.0

eshults11's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense medium-paced

5.0

yetanothersusan's review

emotional informative tense slow-paced

4.75

As retribution for the alleged accosting of a white woman (which didn't happen), white Tulsa massacred the Black neighborhood, Greenwood, in 1921. To add insult to injury, they then actively sought to defraud the people whose homes and businesses they destroyed. Thoroughly researched and told through historical documents and first hand accounts from several, focusing on the prominent Goodwin family, this book details the lead up to and aftermath of the devastation to the present time where survivors and descendants of those attacked are still seeking some type restitution. While initially focused on Greenwood, the focus of the book expands to encompass the country and several other events that have taken place in the fight for equality and equity. At points it perhaps tries to bring in too much but I think that might just be the point. All these events combine for a systemic and overwhelming impact on our Black countrymen. These past traumas and the ongoing consequences must be faced for us to be a stronger country. This book is hopefully a step in educating white America on why that needs to be done.

Thanks to Random House for a copy of the book. This review is my own opinion.