Book List about the Tulsa Race Massacre

An annotated list of books and online resources to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

From May 31 to June 1, 1921, a White mob numbering in the thousands – supported by private airplanes dropping incendiary bombs – obliterated the Greenwood District, a prosperous Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Thirty-five city blocks were destroyed, while as many as 300 Black people were killed, and nearly 10,000 were left homeless.

Book List

Below is a curated and annotated list of books on this topic held at the Springfield City Library as of May 2021, with links to our catalog. Those books available as electronic items (eBooks and eAudiobooks) in Hoopla and Overdrive have links as well.

You can request these books directly in the catalog, or contact any library location for assistance.

Other Resources (click to go directly to the list)

A list of resources available online to learn more about the Tulsa Race Massacre, including an online panel being held June 1.


Book List

The Burning by Tim MadiganThe Burning: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 by Tim Madigan (2001, with a 2021 afterword)

Details how from May 31st – June 1st, 1921, a White mob numbering in the thousands marched across the railroad tracks dividing Black from White in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and obliterated the Greenwood District, a Black community then celebrated as one of America’s most prosperous. As many as 300 people were killed, and nearly 10,000 were left homeless.

Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District by Hannibal B. Johnson (1998)

In the costliest racial attack in American history, Tulsa’s famed Greenwood District was burned to the ground. Lifelong Tulsa resident Hannibal B. Johnson details the rise and destruction of the Greenwood district and its eventual rebirth. In July 2021, look for Johnson’s Black Wall Street 100: An American City Grapples with Its Historical Racial Trauma.

Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District by Hannibal B. JohnsonTulsa’s Historic Greenwood District by Hannibal B. Johnson (2014)

This pictorial history in the “Images of America” series displays photographs of the Greenwood District before, during, and after the Tulsa Race Massacre. The author provides a brief history of the district and ends his narrative with quotes from interviews with survivors of the massacre.

Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Survived Slavery and Became Millionaires by Shomari Wills (2018)

The untold history of America’s first Black self-made entrepreneurs—former enslaved people who endured incredible challenges to amass and maintain their wealth—including O. W. Gurley, an educator and landowner who in 1905 purchased 40 acres in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and developed them into the thriving Greenwood District.

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: A Photographic History by Karlos K. Hill The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: A Photographic History by Karlos K. Hill (2021)

Oral testimonies and more than 175 photographs shine a spotlight on the race massacre from the vantage point of its victims and survivors. Historian Karlos K. Hill describes how White civilians, in many cases assisted or condoned by local and state law enforcement, perpetuated a systematic, coordinated attack on Black Tulsans and their property.

The Nation Must Awake: Our Witness to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 by Mary E. Jones Parrish (2021)

A journalist and teacher’s first-person account, along with the recollections of dozens of others, compiled immediately after the race massacre. Published widely for the first time, these testimonies underscore Black residents’ bravery and the horror of seeing their neighbors gunned down and their community lost to flames.

Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Race Reparations, and Reconciliation by Alfred L. Brophy (2002)

Taking his title from the popular Black-owned Dreamland Theatre torched by White arsonists in 1921, legal scholar Alfred L. Brophy discusses the dreams, businesses, and lives destroyed by the Tulsa Race Massacre and argues for the need for reparations for its survivors.

The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice by Scott Ellsworth (2021)

Unearths the lost history of how the Tulsa Race Massacre was covered up and of the courageous individuals who fought to keep the story alive. The author recounts the ongoing search for the unmarked graves of the victims of the massacre and of the fight to win restitution for the survivors and their families.

Tulsa 1921: Reporting a Massacre by Randy Krehbiel (2021)

Krehbiel, a reporter for the Tulsa World newspaper since 1979, digs deep into the circumstances and attitudes that gave rise to the Tulsa Race Massacre and considers how the Tulsa World, the Tulsa Tribune, and other publications contributed to White Tulsans creating a justification for the massacre.

A Massacre in Memphis: The Race Riot that Shook the Nation One Year After the Civil War by Stephen V. Ash (2013)

The Tulsa Race Massacre was not the first large-scale racially motivated attack in the United States. In May 1866, Memphis erupted in a three-day spasm of racial violence that saw Whites murdering 46 freed Black people and burning Black-owned businesses, homes, and churches.

Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino (2020)

By the 1890s, Wilmington, North Carolina, was a shining example of a mixed-race community, but in 1898, armed White supremacists overthrew Wilmington’s multi-racial government and killed dozens of Black people in the streets, forcing hundreds of Black citizens to flee for their lives.

Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America by Cameron McWhirter (2011)

For eight months in 1919, an unprecedented wave of anti-Black lynchings and massacres swept the country. Millions of lives were disrupted, and hundreds of lives were lost, but Blacks, led by returning Black veterans of World War I, fought back with intensity and determination.

The Rosewood Massacre: An Archaeology and History of Intersectional Violence by Edward González-Tennant (2018)

Investigates the 1923 race massacre that devastated the predominantly Black community of Rosewood, Florida. The town was burned to the ground by neighboring Whites, and its residents escaped with their lives, never to return. Drawing on new methods and theories, Edward González-Tennant uncovers important elements of the forgotten history of Rosewood.

Other Resources

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission was formed to educate people about the massacre, remember its victims and survivors, and foster entrepreneurship and heritage tourism in the area of the Greenwood District. The Commission has organized a series of events this spring, including a nationally televised Remember + Rise commemoration on May 31st and the dedication on June 2nd of Greenwood Rising: The Black Wall Street History Center.

The Tulsa Historical Society and Museum has created an online exhibit about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre which contains photographs, audio recordings from survivors and contemporaries, documents such as court cases, and an historical overview of the massacre.

The National Museum of African American History & Culture and Smithsonian Magazine will be hosting an online panel discussion, “Historically Speaking: 100th Anniversary and Remembrance of the Tulsa Race Massacre” on Wednesday, June 2nd, from 7-8:30 pm. Registration for this free event is recommended.

In 2015, a long lost 10-page, typed eyewitness account of the race massacre by Black Tulsan lawyer B.C. Franklin was rediscovered. In “The Tulsa Race Riot and Three of Its Victims,” Franklin describes how private planes dropped incendiary bombs on the Greenwood District while White attackers gunned down Black residents in the streets. Images of this manuscript’s pages can be viewed online at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture.

On May 19, 2021, three living survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre testified for 2.5 hours in a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives. This National Public Radio article describes their powerful eyewitness accounts and includes a three-minute audio recording of their testimony and their calls for justice.

Books About Anti-Racism and Marginalized Voices

A selection of books and audiobooks on anti-racism and marginalized voices from the Springfield City Library.

This is a list of anti-racism books held at the Springfield City Library as of June 27, 2020, with links to our catalog.

Those books available as electronic items (eBooks and eAudiobooks) in Hoopla have links as well.

We also have an extensive curated collection of electronic items (eBooks and eAudiobooks) available on Overdrive and through the Libby app.


Here are some top choices, alphabetical by author, with a more extensive list below.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (2011) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

El color de la justicia: la nueva segregación racial en Estados Unidos por Michelle Alexander (2017) (también en Hoopla como audiolibro electrónico)

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (1963)

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin J. DeAngelo (2018)

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (2017)

Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives Are Surveilled and How to Work for Change by Angela Hattery and Earl Smith (2018)

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall (2020)

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (2019)

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi (2016) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele (2018) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde (1984) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris (2018) (also on Hoopla as eBook and eAudiobook)

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo (2018) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds (2020)

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad (2020) (also on Hoopla as eBook and eAudiobook)

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward, editor (2016)

Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence by Chad Louis Williams, Kidada E. Williams, and Keisha N. Blain (2016)

 


 

Black Lotus: A Woman’s Search for Racial Identity by Sil Lai Abrams (2016)

Cuz: Or, the Life and Times of Michael A. by Danielle S. Allen (2017)

We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden (2018)

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969)

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua (1987)

Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America by Nefertiti Austin (2019) (also on Hoopla as eBook and eAudiobook)

Malaya: Essays on Freedom by Cinelle Barnes (2019)

Things That Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett and Dave Zirin (2018) (also on Hoopla as eBook and eAudiobook)

Black is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard (2019)

A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali N. Gross (2020)

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon (2008)

Black Detroit: A People’s History of Self-Determination by Herb Boyd (2017)

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics by Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, Minyon Moore, and Veronica Chambers (2018) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown (2018)

The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love with Me by Keah Brown (2019)

The Heritage: Black Athletes, A Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism by Howard Bryant (2018)

Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women by Susan Burton and Cari Lynn (2017) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

Chokehold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler (2017) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

This Stops Today: Eric Garner’s Mother Seeks Justice After Losing Her Son by Gwen Carr and Dave Smitherman (2018) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene A. Carruthers (2018)

We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation by Jeff Chang (2016)

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2017)

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney C. Cooper (2018) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education by Jennine Capo Crucet (2019)

Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom, Tressie McMillan (2019) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

A Drop of Midnight: A Memoir by Jason Timbuktu Diakite (2020)

Ordinary Girls: A Memoir by Jaquira Diaz (2019) (also on Hoopla as eBook and eAudiobook)

“All the Real Indians Died Off”: And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker (2016) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America by Michael Eric Dyson (2016) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson (2017)

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt (2019)

How to Make White People Laugh by Negin Farsad (2016)

How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide by Crystal M. Fleming (2018)

Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin (2017)

Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2019)

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay (2014) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay (2017) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903 by Lawrence Goldstone (2011)

On Account of Race: The Supreme Court, White Supremacy, and the Ravaging of African American Voting Rights by Lawrence Goldstone (2020) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

Conversations in Black: On Power, Politics, and Leadership by Ed Gordon (2020)

In the Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero and Michelle Burford (2016)

En el país que amamos: mi familia dividida por Diane Guerrero y Michelle Burford (2016)

The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell it Like It Is by Fannie Lou Hamer (2011)

Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa V. Harris-Perry (2011) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes 2017

A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir by Daisy Hernandez (2017)

Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo (2020) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland by DaMaris B. Hill (2019)

Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond by Marc Lamont Hill (2016) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin (2018)

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong (2020)

The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America’s Law Enforcement by Matthew Horace and Ron Harris (2018)

Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream [graphic novel] written by Blair Imani and illustrated by Rachelle Baker (2020)

Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving (2014) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape our Multiracial Future by Deepa Iyer (2015) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family by Mitchell S. Jackson (2019)

This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America by Morgan Jerkins (2018) (also on Hoopla as eBook and eAudiobook)

Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets by Feminista Jones (2019)

How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones (2019)

Talking About Race: A Workbook About White People Fostering Racial Equality in Their Lives by Kaolin (2010)

Black Indians: A Heritage by William Loren Katz (2012) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

Whiter: Asian American Women on Skin Color and Colorism by Nikki Khanna (2020)

Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time by James William Kilgore (2015) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon (2018)

The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee (2015)

My Sister: How One Sibling’s Transition Changed Us Both by Selenis Leyva, Marizol Leyva, and Emily Chammah (2020)

The Turtle’s Beating Heart: One Family’s Story of Lenape Survival by Denise Low (2017)

The War on Neighborhoods: Policing, Prison, and Punishment in a Divided City by Ryan Lugalia-Hollon and Daniel Cooper (2018)

Real American: a Memoir by Julie Lythcott-Haims (2017) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance—A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Danielle L. McGuire (2010)

Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy, and Love of My Son Michael Brown by Lezley McSpadden and Lyah Beth LeFlore (2016) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem (2017)

My Brown Baby: On the Joys and Challenges of Raising African American Children by Denene Millner (2017)

Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me by Janet Mock (2017)

Latinas and Latinos on TV: Colorblind Comedy in the Post-racial Network Era by Isabel Molina-Guzman (2018)

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore (2011)

Brown, White, Black: An American Family at the Intersection of Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion by Mehra Nishta (2019) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama (1995)

Becoming by Michelle Obama (2018)

An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz (2018)

Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry (2019)

Excessive Use of Force: A Mother’s Continuing Fight Against Police Misconduct by Loretta P. Prater (2018)

Invisible No More: Police Violence against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie (2017)

You Can’t Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson (2016)

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (2017)

Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City by A.K. Sandoval-Strausz (2019)

Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America by Sharmila Sen (2018)

Toxic Inequality: How America’s Wealth Gap Destroys Mobility, Deepens the Racial Divide, & Threatens Our Future by Thomas M. Shaprio (2017) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman, editors (2019)

Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education by Mychal Denzel Smith (2016)

All Eyes Are Upon Us: Race and Politics from Boston to Brooklyn by Jason Sokol (2014)

How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin (2019)

Handcuffed: What Holds Policing Back, and the Keys to Reform by Malcolm K. Sparrow (2016) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

To Protect and Serve: How to Fix America’s Police by Norm Stamper (2016)

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings (2019) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street by Matt Taibbi (2017)

Can We Talk About Race?: And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation by Beverly Daniel Tatum (2007)

Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (2019) (also on Hoopla as eBook and eAudiobook)

How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (2017) (also on Hoopla as eBook and eAudiobook)

Black Fathers: A Call for Healing by Kristin Clark Taylor (2003)

A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis (2018)

We Matter: Athletes and Activism by Etan Thomas (2018) (also on Hoopla as eBook)

The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby (2019) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer (2019)

Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life by David Treuer (2012) (also on Hoopla as eBook and eAudiobook)

The Good the Bad and the Blue by M. Triplett and H. Triplett (2018)

Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy (2015)

America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America by Jim Wallis (2016)

Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward (2013)

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington (2006) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind by Harriet A. Washington (2019)

Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race – And Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us by Benjamin Watson (2015) (also on Hoopla as eBook and eAudiobook)

Well-read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves: An Anthology by Glory Edim, editor (2018)

The autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley (1965)

Our Black Sons Matter: Mothers Talk about Fears, Sorrows, and Hopes by George Yancy, Maria del Gaudalupe Davidson, and Susan Joan Hadley, editors (2016)

The Souls of Yellow Folk: Essays by Wesley Yang (2018) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays by Damon Young (2019) (also on Hoopla as eAudiobook)