Built from the Fire is a detailed book about Greenwood, known as the Black Wall Street of Tulsa. I had not heard about this part of Oklahoma history until recently. Hard to believe!

This is a well researched book that starts before Oklahoma statehood. This book reads well and goes all the way to present day Tulsa. This story is all about the Goodwin family.

Built from the Fire
The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street
by Victor Luckerson
“A multigenerational saga of a family and a community in Tulsa’s Greenwood district, known as “Black Wall Street,” that in one century survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, urban renewal, and gentrification”
When Ed Goodwin moved with his parents to the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his family joined a community soon to become the center of black life in the West. But just a few years later, on May 31, 1921, the teenaged Ed hid in a bathtub as a white mob descended on his neighborhood, laying waste to thirty-five blocks and murdering as many as three hundred people in one of the worst acts of racist violence in U.S. history.
This was never the whole story of Greenwood, the Goodwins and their neighbors soon rebuilt it into “a Mecca,” in Ed’s words, where nightlife thrived, small businesses flourished, and an underworld economy lived comfortably alongside public storefronts. But there was a stark reality of privilege and poverty with a cross section of maids, doctors, and many occupations. Ed grew into a prominent businessman and bought a newspaper called the Oklahoma Eagle to chronicle Greenwood’s resurgence and battles against white bigotry. He and his wife, Jeanne, raised an ambitious family, and their son Jim, an attorney, embodied their hopes for the Civil Rights Movement in his work. But by the 1970s, urban renewal policies had nearly emptied the neighborhood, this is an enlightening true story about the era and the resilience of the residents that refused to allow the neighborhood to be erased.

What happened in Tulsa was a national atrocity, and Victor Luckerson's Built from the Fire brings to light rich detail to the devastation wrought upon Tulsa's Black Wall Street through the lens of the Goodwin clan. It's essential reading.

Many thanks to the author, published, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

I cannot say enough about this book. I have used it in my English 10 course and in my Ap Government course. This is a story that needs to be told, and this book does such an incredible job of saying what needs to be said. It should be required reading.

This book will make you angry. Read it anyway.
This book will make you cry. Read it anyway.
This book will push you into activism. Excellent.
This book will absolutely change you. THIS is why you should read it.

Told through the generations of the Goodwin family, this is the story of Greenwood [Tulsa's Black Wall Street], a prosperous Black community that was thriving and growing and how it was almost completely destroyed in one night by a mob of angry white people bent on revenge, hate, and putting "those people into their right place" and how the survivors of that massacre have struggled for years to both put their lives back together AND to get restoration, retribution, and reparations [and are still struggling to this day]. How fragile must the white ego be to not be able to say out loud that what happened over a hundred years ago now, was not only wrong, but illegal and immoral and that the city of Tulsa owes these survivors more than they will ever be able to give? SO much of how the "people in charge" acted and continue to act made me physically ill, angry and very ashamed and made my heart hurt for the survivors families that just are trying to have a better life and keep the memory of those lost in the massacre alive; I can only hope that there comes a day when all of this happens and they are able to be at peace - both the descendants AND the people who came before. We can hope.

Thank you to Victor Luckerson for writing this book - I cannot even imagine how difficult it must have been at times and what you have accomplished cannot be overstated. Well done sir, well done.

I was asked to read/review this book and I thank Random House Publishing Group/Random House for the opportunity to give an honest review to this ARC.

This is an excellent accounting of Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood from its earliest days, through the race massacre, up until today. It doesn’t shy away from the ups and downs of the residents with legitimate and not so legitimate businesses. There is no romanticism but an honest representation of the lives and families who have called Greenwood home. Of course, the centerpiece is the massacre and it’s lasting effects on the community, but where this book shines is that, despite all the turmoil since the massacre (neighborhood “revitalization”, etc.) the people of Greenwood are not defined by what happened to them.

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has become more widely known in recent years. In Built From the Fire Victor Luckerson provides a wider perspective of Tulsa, from it's founding through to the present. Centering on the African American Goodwin family, who lived in Tulsa from 1914 onward, Luckerson covers the origins and success of the Greenwood District, the tragic events of May 1921, and the communities continuing struggle to rebuild and receive judicial or financial restitution. It is the story of endurance in the face of hatred, destruction and neglect.

The book is divided into three parts. The first details the establishment and growth of Greenwood ending with the Massacre. Part two centers on the efforts to rebuild and fight further erasure. Part 3 documents present day Greenwood as a site of remembrance and commodification. Through each of these we learn of the experience of the Goodwin family across generations, with frequent details provided by the Goodwin family's long running newspaper, The Oklahoma Eagle which is still being published.

Where Scott Ellsworth's Death In a Promisedland and Mary E Jones Parrish's The Nation Must Awake both detail the events of May 31, 1921 in all the minutiae from whatever happened between Dick Rowland and elevator attendant Sarah page to make her scream, to the ratcheting of tensions as both sides armed and eventually the overwhelming response of murder, systematic looting and burning of Black Greenwood; Luckerson goes further, while also drawing on these two works and many others.

We learn about the challenges of rebuilding and how the American Red Cross was one of the few organizations that actually followed through on their offer of aid, other efforts being stymied by Tulsan white politicians out for their own gain. There are the families that left everything behind to start new lives, under much reduced circumstances elsewhere. There is also the aspect of detailing traumatic legacies, Parrish's book aside, little was published or discussed for a lengthy breadth of time. Luckerson discusses how the Race Massacre was remembered between the white and black communities, with some attempting to stifle the topic or simply rewrite the past to a more favorable version of history.

A later threat to the community was the implementation of the interstate highway system that disrupted the Greenwood community, with many broken promises and lack of development. In Part 3, we see the contemporary struggle for remembrance when Greenwood is also the location for a baseball stadium. We learn of the difficulties and energies required for Regina Goodwin to pass legislation. Of Tiffany Crutcher's activism following the Police murder of Terrence Crutcher, her brother.

The past is never dead, and we all must remember what has come before to better understand what happens today. Luckerson exemplary documentation of Tulsa shows how the trauma of the past informs the present. It is more evidence that America as idealized frequently does not live up to the image it seeks to portray internationally as a democratic nation centered on individual freedom. Tulsa was not the only site of racially motivated violence, especially in the 1910 and 1920s, but it was one of the worst. It is history that needs to be told and heard.

TL;DR

Built from the Fire by Victor Luckerson tells the story of Greenwood, OK through generations of the Goodwin family. This book chronicles the changes from Tulsa Race Massacre to the present day challenges faced by the citizens of Greenwood. Highly Recommended.

Review: Built from the Fire by Victor Luckerson

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, as the old saying goes. When you think about it, this is kind of a crap saying because we can only remember the history we’re taught. And, as the U.S. is seeing currently, bad actors work hard at suppressing history through book bans, censoring textbooks, controlling school curriculum, and undermining education and researchers. Lucky for us, there are people working to remind us of our history in hopes that we don’t forget. Historians, journalists, and activists work hard to keep all aspects of our shared history alive in our collective memory. One exemplary work is Built from the Fire by Victor Luckerson. This book tells the story of the Goodwins of Greenwood, OK, just north of Tulsa. Their journey through the Tulsa Race Massacre to today shows the horror of and fortitude required of being black in the U.S. This is a book that won’t let us forget the horrifying events of that day, but it also shows us a people transcending the horror to make a better future.

James and Carli Goodwin decided to move from Water Valley, Mississippi to Greenwood, Oklahoma because it was call the Eden of the West. It was an experiment in black prosperity. They moved their family hoping for more, hoping for opportunity, and they found it. Greenwood had a black owned newspaper, movie theater, candy store, you name it; black Americans prospered in Greenwood. But cross the right street, and suddenly you would be in Tulsa, OK where white people lived and prospered, thanks to the oil boom. Segregation was still the law of the land when the Goodwins arrived. Lynching was a common practice, and most white people didn’t want to ‘mix’ with black people. All it took for a black man to be arrested was an accusation from a white woman, and this accusation would likely cost the man his life. This was the case for Dick Rowland, a shoeshine boy in Tulsa, OK. He was arrested, and rumors of a lynching circulated around both the white and black sections of town. Rowland was even moved from one location to another to help prevent a possible lynching. When a white crowd gathered round the jailhouse, an armed black crowd marched to his defense despite being vastly outnumbered. The sheriff sent the crowd back to Greenwood, but terror infected the white crowds’ hearts. Their fear of a black uprising seemed to be happening, and with the permission of local law enforcement, the massacre of black residents and burning of black property began.

Built from the Fire is in three parts. The first part is the build up to and immediate aftermath of the race massacre. Luckerson paints a portrait of Greenwood in great detail, and it sounded like the American Dream, or as much as black people are allowed to partake in the American Dream. Black businesses thrived; community grew, helped each other, and made a place with a small amount of hope. Luckerson grounds readers in the necessary information to see how despite the good times, it was all built upon a house of cards. We get to see the entrepreneurial families of Greenwood, and we learn about each of them. Readers learn how French soldiers in World War I had to adjust how they treated black soldiers to accommodate the white soldiers’ bigotry. Luckerson shows how black intellectuals visited and helped the Greenwood experience. In all, he paints a beautiful picture, and then he sets it on fire. Part II and Part III follow Greenwood through to the present day, showing that the experiment is not finished. Not by a long shot.

Built from the Fire by Victor Luckerson is a third person historical work that uses the Goodwin family saga as an example of the larger Greenwood, OK saga. It’s a book worth dwelling in, and it will horrify you. It shows the best and worst of humanity within its pages. Luckerson’s writing balances history with the human story. Built from the Fire reads like a novel because Luckerson tells a story expertly; it just happens that this is a true story and that you’ll learn a lot by reading of the Goodwins’ lives.

History the GOP Would Rather We Forget

Currently, Republicans around the country are trying to ban books that highlight the racially charged history of the U.S., as if that wasn’t an essential thread of our history. Racism is baked into our founding document; the people who wrote our beloved constitution were slave owners. Still, modern conservatives want to believe that racism stopped with the Civil War. Mountains of evidence to the contrary, they still refuse to believe otherwise. It’s easy to see how because until The Watchmen, not many white people knew about the Tulsa Race Massacre, me included. Stuff like that wasn’t taught in our classes. Even in the modern U.S. history class I took in college, Greenwood and that horror wasn’t discussed. (I bet if I had take an African American studies class, it would have been discussed.) Granted, U.S. history covers a lot of time, and some things can, will, and should be left out. But should 19th century history have at least a mention of post-Reconstruction terror other than poll taxes, literacy tests, and lynching? I think so. (It’s been a few decades since I took a college class, so maybe this has changed.)

Built from the Fire is an example of why we can’t ever stop educating ourselves. Because the lasting effects of the Tulsa Race Massacre are still felt today. Luckerson not only reminds us of this event, but he reminds us of the toll it takes to this very day. Often, events like this are discussed as historical events, as if they were discrete periods of time that can be extracted without consequence. Luckerson destroys that, and it makes for a more impactful lesson.

One conservative dismissal of black criticism is that all that stuff happened in the past, why are ‘they’ still complaining about it today? I think this book is a good counter to this dismissal. (Yes, the conservative will just invent excuses to dismiss the book, too.) History is a current that affects us today. Excellent writers like Luckerson can shows us how history connects to today, as he does in Built from the Fire.

Institutional Racism on Display for All to See

Often with my conservative friends, they’ll dismiss structural, or institutional, racism as not existing. Luckerson shows through exhaustive research how institutional racism aided, abetted, and protected the white criminals. Often, those same white criminals were government officials or deputized by government officials. Whether the Tulsa or the Oklahoma or the Federal government, all protected white people and failed the black citizens. Luckerson has the evidence to show this, even using government documents to back it up. The very institutions of our nation worked against them in order to preserve the white supremacy from which it profited.

But it isn’t just governments that failed the black citizens. Insurance companies didn’t pay out on policies because the government claimed it was a riot. White ‘advisors’ sought to ‘help’ black people through purchases after their properties were destroyed. These vultures came in hoping to profit off of the destruction they likely participated in.

Hope

So far the review has focused on the negativity in the book. Maybe I’m focused on the wrong parts of the book. But I’m angry. I’m angry for the citizens of Greenwood; I’m angry for black Americans for whom racism isn’t a thing of the past; I’m angry for all marginalized groups as my nation falls back into its darkest impulses. But Built from the Fire is, I think, a hopeful book. Luckerson paints a lovely scene of a crowd outside the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Center on May 31, proclaimed Reconciliation Day, and their walk to John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, with its famous sculptures. This, and other acts of preservation, keep the lessons of that horrible time fresh for us in hopes of never repeating them. Luckerson talks about how the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce preserved the heart of the old business district. He shows how Regina Goodwin become an Oklahoma legislator. There are stories of hope.

Of course this isn’t a novel; so, it doesn’t have a happy ending. Luckerson writes about the protests around George Floyd, about Trump holding his first rally in Tulsa, and about Terrence Crutcher. Still, the Goodwins live and thrive in Greenwood. The Oklahoma Eagle celebrated a 100 year anniversary. Joe Biden acknowledged the devastation of urban renewal on Greenwood. Despite all that has happened, the Goodwins and black Americans continue to work to improve this country. To improve their lives. They have no choice, and yet they continue to do so within institutions and structures designed to specifically limit them. And they’re making progress. Small, maybe even microscopic progress, but progress nonetheless. That is hope.

Conclusion

Victor Luckerson’s Built from the Fire reminds us that the currents of history flow through contemporary society. Luckerson won’t let us forget what happened in Greenwood; he won’t let us forget how this nation and its institutions failed its citizens in their hour of need. He, and the residents of Greenwood, also won’t let us forget an era of America’s past that cannot be repeated. Highly recommended.

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.

Built From the Fire promises to be an "epic story," but aside from length, it doesn't quite hit the mark. Telling the story of Greenwood, the Tulsa Race Massacre and its aftermath, and what came next as Greenwood was rebuilt--as told using historical accounts of families and individuals who survived it--author Luckerson focuses mostly on the Goodwin family, and mostly its men. It starts off well, with an excellent account of Greenwood's early years and the horrific Massacre in which hundreds of Black citizens were murdered by Whites. But as the narrative goes on, Luckerson makes more and more assumptions without substantiation, and becomes more subjective about what happened as Greenwood tried to rebuild. At the end of the book, the story becomes mired in legislative details and minutia and that was completely numbing. I can't help but think that there's a better book out there chronicling Greenwood's recovery.

“One hundred years in the neighborhood that refused to be erased,” the cover reads. But the story of Greenwood begins before the Tulsa Massacre, before the white citizens descended upon their innocent neighbors to destroy their homes, their businesses, and take their very lives. The story starts with a dream of a better life, with Southern blacks coming to Oklahoma and working hard and building a vibrant community.

For all the Greenwood community had achieved, and lost, and built again, they still face systemic racism, political powerlessness, a corrupt justice system. The fight is ongoing.

Greenwood’s story is America’s story. A story of the limits of the American Dream, based on color. A story of the struggle for rights guaranteed under the Constitution. A story of strength and endurance and persistence.

My Civics teacher stood in front of our class in spring of 1967 and proclaimed, “There is only one race–the human race.” And yet that summer we watched armed tanks going down Woodward Avenue and helicopters fly overhead, on their way to Detroit.

There is the idea. And there is the reality.

A few years ago I read Scott Ellison’s The Ground Breaking: The Tulsa Race Massacre and an American City’s Search for Justice. So, Built From the Fire caught my interest. Luckerson covers the massacre in one chapter, the bulk of the book dedicated to the history of Greenwood before and after. He takes us into the community through the people who built Greenwood and their descendants who stayed to rebuild it. Hearing their stories makes this a particularly emotional read. We respect these people, we care for them, we cry with them.

I became so incensed by what I read. Of course, by the hateful violence of the massacre, but also by the intrenched white supremacy that endures to this day.

I remember hearing about ‘urban renewal,’ but as a girl I didn’t realize it was better understood as “Negro removal,” as James Baldwin is quoted as saying. Here in Detroit they are removing the highway that destroyed black neighborhoods in the 1960s. The highway barrier may be removed, but it can’t undo damage inflicted decades ago.

The Tulsa Massacre was hidden history for decades. Those who survived, and those who heard the stories from survivors, share their stories in these pages. I was extremely moved. And angred. And saddened.

Luckerson is a masterful writer.

I received a free book from the publisher. My review is fair and unbiased.

Through the eyes of the Tulsa Race Massacre survivors and family, Built from the Fire shows what the greenwood district was like, the aftermath of the massacre, community displacement of the ‘70s “urban renewal”, and government inaction. Built from the Fire is a must read for anyone who wants to know more about the Greenwood district as well as the extent white Tulsa residents and the government went to erase their complicity.

“Built From The Fire” by Victor Luckerson brings the story of Greenwood, America’s Black Wall Street, from the literal ashes and sheds a powerful light on the shamefully hidden part of American history. Intensely researched and written through the lens of one family, the Goodwins, who survived it all. Luckerson does not hide the painful history of racism that affects Greenwood and African Americans to this day. His words are a call to action. Many thanks to #RandomHouse for inviting me to read this book in advance of publication. #netgalley #builtfromthefire

I’ve been curious to read more about Greenwood, known as the Black Wall Street of Tulsa, for several years. It was the site of the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921, when mobs of white residents attacked the black community, burning the buildings and killing many of the citizens. It remains one of the worst racial violence incidents to this day. So I was glad to see that Victor Luckerson had written an entire book about it.
Luckerson starts with an in-depth exploration of the community. Like Erik Larson, Luckerson is adept at weaving multiple strands of knowledge, including current local and national politics, social norms and economics into a unified whole.
As you would expect, the chapters about the massacre are gruesome. While America had seen other incidents of racial violence in the prior years, this went well beyond those atrocities. There was all manner of violence, even using airplanes to strafe and drop explosives. The white mob grew to include women and children, who ransacked the homes and businesses.
But as bad as the ransacking of Greenwood was, what followed was even worse. White businessmen tried to make sure that Greenwood was not rebuilt or that the citizens were not fairly compensated. But the citizens of Greenwood were not to be so easily manipulated. The book doesn’t stop with the 1920s. It follows the community through the following 100 years. By the 1970s, “urban renewal” had managed to destroy huge swaths of the community. The later decades tend to focus more on issues that affected Black communities throughout the country or state, with local examples. Although he makes a point of showing how repercussions from the Massacre lasted for decades afterwards. And a continuing thread through the later chapters is the fight for reparations.
This is a well researched, detailed book. The author includes numerous pictures of the individuals involved as well as the area which greatly added to my feel for the subject.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.