The Burning

A detailed account of the devastating 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, including its complex roots and long-term implications. This young readers' version of the highly regarded 2001 adult work by the same name covers the events during which the Black district of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was reduced to rubble as mobs of White men attacked, unchecked (and even joined by) by law enforcement, and hundreds of Black lives were lost. The violence was initially fueled by rumors of a White woman's assault by a Black teenager. However, the perpetrators seized the opportunity to act out their resentment toward Black Wall Street, Greenwood's thriving business sector, which represented efforts to create lives and opportunities denied by segregation. The incident is carefully placed in the context of historical influences such as Jim Crow laws, post-Reconstruction violence, the forced relocation of Native Americans, and the oil boom. The dramatic narrative then turns to the 19-year-old whose arrest was the catalyst, the sheriff who attempted to keep a lynch mob at bay, the Black leaders who fought for their community, and people of all ages fleeing for their lives. When the violence was over, the White community set out--to a large degree successfully--to erase knowledge of the incident. This valuable work concludes by connecting historical events to present-day systemic racial inequalities and struggles for justice. A comprehensive, well-crafted account of a grim historical event. (author's note, chapter notes, source notes, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

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July 1, 2021

Gr 6 Up-Eye-opening and immersive, this book is essential antiracist reading. Written by Madigan and adapted by Beard for young readers, this in-depth work of narrative nonfiction peels back the layers of the burning and massacre of Greenwood, a 35-block part of Tulsa, OK, in 1921. Also known as "Black Wall Street," Greenwood was a bustling, thriving community of Black Americans that became the target of white racist rage, violence, and destruction after a Black 19-year-old named Dick Rowland was accused of accosting a white 17-year-old named Sarah Page. Madigan and Beard weave together a complex history of the setting, beginning with enslavement times, and by peppering the chapters with perspectives of victims and survivors. These personal stories sometimes get bogged down in the depth of history that is required to set the stage for the unfolding of the deadliest domestic outbreak of violence since the Civil War. Upwards of 300 deaths, $50-$100 million in damages in today's dollars, over 1,000 homes burned, and dozens of businesses looted and torched: the reader is asked to grapple with the virulent racism of the times, which still plays out in Tulsa's systemic injustices today. As Beard notes in the introduction, readers, especially Black youth, should take caution when reading about lynching, mobs, and massacre. VERDICT Though the work is at times weighty and narratively dense, confronting this history is the only way we can move forward to a just, antiracist future. Recommended.-Jamie Winchell, Percy Julian M.S., IL

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September 10, 2001
In 1921 in Tulsa, Okla., hundreds of black residents of the prosperous Greenwood community were massacred by a mob of white townspeople. Madigan, a reporter with the Fort Worth Star Telegram, deftly locates the carnage in its proper political and cultural setting. Unlike previous accounts, this one shows how the riot touched individual lives by creating full-scale portraits of black and white citizens of oil-rich Tulsa. He fashions absorbing narratives from his interviews with survivors and from information uncovered by the 1997 Tulsa Race Riot Commission. Individual voices combine to relate the tragic chain of events, the madness and atmosphere of hate that compelled the white mob to torch almost every building in Greenwood. The earnest Sheriff McCullough worried about vigilantes running amok; the racist publisher Richard Lloyd Jones sought to sell newspapers by appealing to white bias; the defiant ex-slave Townsend Jackson refused to comply with Jim Crow laws; and the hapless Dick Rowland's arrest for accidentally bumping into a white girl triggers the slaughter. Madigan's skill at description, dialogue and pacing keeps the reader's interest at peak levels, and he does not gloss over brutal scenes of murder, arson and torture. Many other accounts have ignored the strong resistance of many Greenwood blacks against white marauders. Madigan draws implicit connections between one of the bloodiest racial atrocities in U.S. history and today's racial climate by concluding his timely history lesson with an update of the Tulsa commission findings and the city's move toward healing and reconciliation. 16 pages b&w photos not seen by PW.

Starred review from May 1, 2021
Grades 6-10 *Starred Review* Genocide, a pogrom, or the largest act of homegrown terrorism in U.S. history? This young readers edition of Madigan's The Burning uses all three terms to describe the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. To help readers understand how something this atrocious could happen, the author first explains the rise of white supremacy and its terror tactics during Reconstruction. Amidst this constant oppression, there was one bright spot, the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street because of the area's prosperous Black community. Embedded with numerous eyewitness accounts, the narrative recounts the racist events that led up to the massacre and many of the horrific tales of murder, looting, and burning that resulted in the destruction of Greenwood and the deaths of hundreds of its residents. Because the original text, published in 2001, had a predominantly white focus, adaptor Beard integrates here more perspectives of Black Tulsans who bravely fought for their community. But how could something this devastating be lost to history for decades? The text shows how systemic racism covered up the massacre and how a move for reparations began to uncover it. In this revised edition, Beard also concludes with a new section that relates the Tulsa massacre to more recent racial injustices and the BLM movement. Eye-opening and unforgettable.

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