Built from the Fire

Adult nonfiction 

     "Jim Goodwin remembers the symphony of the old Greenwood well.  The blues mingling with smoke as it wafted out of hazy juke joints, the sizzle of beef on the open grill at hamburger stands, the seductive murmurs of hustlers in back alleys peddling their pocket addictions, the click-clack of women's heels on the sidewalk when all the maids crowded the streets on their Thursday nights off.  Greenwood was loud.  Boisterous."

     In the first sentences of Built from the Fire Victor Luckerson evocatively describes a neighborhood that was home to many people, appealing to several senses.  I want you to stop reading and imagine your own neighborhood this way.  What do you see, smell, hear, feel?  What are the things that make the place you live in special?

     Now imagine that same place on a terrifying night.  Gunfire rings all around along with the roar and crackle of raging inferno.  You and your family are fleeing your only home with just the clothes on your back, hoping against hope that you all can survive and reach safety.

     Those who have read this blog for awhile might know that we're talking about another book about the 1921 Greenwood Massacre.  Greenwood, sometimes called the Black Wall Street, was a Tulsa, Oklahoma neighborhood that Blacks, through faith and hard work, had turned into a place of thriving businesses and sturdy homes.  On May 31 a Black male riding an elevator was accused of assaulting the white operator.  A mob of whites gathered at the jail to lynch him while Blacks armed themselves to protect him.  During the course of the night the mob tore through Greenwood in a rampage of killing, looting, and burning.  By the time the sun rose over 1,500 homes and 150 businesses, along with churches and a hospital were destroyed along with churches and the only Black hospital.  Possibly hundreds of the people who lived there were viciously slain.

     I've read a number of excellent books about this evil chapter in American history.  But I find Built from the Fire to be by far the best.  It covers a span of over a century from before to much after.  It also puts the event into context with other historical events, sort of like setting a puzzle piece in place.  It shows how:

*Tulsa's Blacks fared a lot worse in the Great Depression than its whites because they'd not only lost a lot of assets, but had to spend their savings and take out loans to rebuild;

*During the Urban Renewal of the 60s and 70s their neighborhood was torn apart for highway construction while those of whites were spared;

and *Every step of the way the rich and powerful opposed any attempts at getting equity and justice.

     Although the book has a lot of serious research, it's also highly readable.  It follows generations of the central families, giving insight into the private as well as public repercussions of the massacre. 

     I'm not going to pretend that it's a little, light beach read.  It took me five days to work my way through it.  But if you want to get at the roots of this American tragedy it's a very good place to start.

Jules Hathaway 

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