The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

by Tim Madigan

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History. Sociology. Nonfiction. On the morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob numbering in the thousands marched across the railroad tracks dividing black from white in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and obliterated a black community then celebrated as one of America's most prosperous. Thirty-four square blocks of Tulsa's Greenwood community were reduced to smoldering rubble. And now, eighty years later, the death toll of what is known as the Tulsa Race Riot is more difficult to pinpoint. Conservative show more estimates put the number of dead at about 100 (75% of the victims are believed to have been black), but the actual number of casualties could be triple that. The Tulsa Race Riot Commission, formed two years ago to determine exactly what happened, has recommended that restitution to the historic Greenwood Community would be good public policy and do much to repair the emotional as well as physical scars of this most terrible incident in our shared past. With chilling details, humanity, and the narrative thrust of compelling fiction, The Burning will recreate the town of Greenwood at the height of its prosperity, explore the currents of hatred, racism, and mistrust between its black residents and neighboring Tulsa's white population, narrate events leading up to and including Greenwood's annihilation, and document the subsequent silence that surrounded the tragedy. show less

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6 reviews
The Burning
The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921
by Tim Madigan
St. Martin's Press

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this book. It's the 100 year anniversary of this carnage and I hope no one forgets this. Some didn't even know about this at all until 1970 when the book was first printed because the event was covered up so well.

This book is a wealth of information about before, during, and after the massacre. It follows several people personally from before, during, and after. It describes the society at the time, what was leading up to this. The layout of the town, the daily routine of the people, what was changing. It also discussed the trigger that set everything off.

It also discussed the rise of the KKK and how show more it came to be, how it morphed into what if it is now. How is changed the lives of everyone when it was shown as a savior to whites in the movie, 'Birth of a Nation'. The rise of hate, the lust for not just killing, but torture and killing.

It was hard to read this book but I wanted to know the truth. That is something hard to come by these days. Even if it's not what I want to hear, I need the truth. Unfortunately I see a comparison of then and now. The rise of not just the hate but the lust of hate! Not just here in America but across the world. We were never a compassionate people but why can't we learn from our mistakes like this event in the book! A horrible massacre that killed hundreds of innocent people.

I recommend this to all people that have a sliver of hope left for mankind. This book is packed with information and clarity as to the explosive, damaging rage and hate has in our communities. May we become better than this.
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I never heard of the Tulsa race riot. A friend recommended I read this book. It is out of printo so I had to find a used copy. This book was disturbing. How could an event like this happen and we never heard of it. I recommend but it is a hard truth.
Sobering, but tempered with some humanity
3637. The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, by Tim Madigan (read 14 Oct 2002) This is an account of a race riot on May 31-Jun 1, 1921, in Tulsa resulting in the death of, the author believes, about 200 people, most of them black. The author is a journalist and tells the story journalistically, without footnotes. It is an important story and deserves to be told, but this account is not well-done. Instead of expatiating on the awfulness of the story I think an exposition of the facts, documented, would have been more effective, at least as far as I am concerned.
½
Should be retquired reading in every school, at every level, in the United States.

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12 Works 860 Members
Tim Madigan is an award-winning writer with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram who in both 1996 and 1997 was named Texas Reporter of the Year in the state's most prestigious journalism competition

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Common Knowledge

Original publication date
2001
Important places
Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

Classifications

Genres
Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction
DDC/MDS
976.6History & geographyHistory of North AmericaSouth central United StatesOklahoma
LCC
F704 .T92 .M33Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin AmericaUnited States local historyOklahoma
BISAC

Statistics

Members
367
Popularity
85,363
Reviews
5
Rating
½ (4.34)
Languages
English
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
11
ASINs
3