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.
Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.
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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.
From the Publisher
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
“The scope, the elegance, and the power of Victor Luckerson’s tale is simply breathtaking and empowering.”—Carol Anderson, author of White Rage
When Ed Goodwin moved with his parents to Greenwood, Tulsa, in 1914, his family joined a growing community on the cusp of becoming a national center of black life. But, just seven 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. The Tulsa Race Massacre was one of the most brutal acts of racist violence in U.S. history, a ruthless attempt to smother a spark of black independence.
But that 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. Prosperity and poverty intermixed, and icons from W.E.B. Du Bois to Muhammad Ali ambled down Greenwood Avenue, alongside maids, doctors, and every occupation in between. 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, even as Jim and his neighbors tried to hold on to it. Today, while new high-rises and encroaching gentrification risk wiping out Greenwood’s legacy for good, the family newspaper remains, and Ed’s granddaughter Regina represents the neighborhood in the Oklahoma state legislature, working alongside a new generation of local activists.
In Built from the Fire, journalist Victor Luckerson moves beyond the mythology of Black Wall Street to tell the story of an aspirant black neighborhood that, like so many others, has long been buffeted by racist government policies. Through the eyes of dozens of race massacre survivors and their descendants, Luckerson delivers an honest, moving portrait of this potent national symbol of success and solidarity—and weaves an epic tale about a neighborhood that refused, more than once, to be erased.
Review: Built from the Fire by Victor Luckerson
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.
Built from the Fire by Victor Luckerson is available from Random House on May 23rd, 2023.
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