The Burning: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

by Tim Madigan

Book Overview

"A powerful book, a harrowing case study made all the more so by Madigan's skillful, clear-eyed telling of it." --Adam Nossiter, The New York Times Book Review

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. 34 square blocks of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312302479
• ISBN13: 9780312302474
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Recount of a Tragedy

A moment in history that should never be forgotten, this book does an excellent job of recounting the Tulsa race riot of 1921 and further underscores the caveat that had Greenwood District residents not shown up with pistols and shotguns at Tulsa County Courthouse, this event very likely never would have reached its tragic outcome. Recommend for all history buffs.

Excellent Details on the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot

This was the best book I read in 2009. It was very detailed and to the point. The author did an excellent job finding people to interview who were a part of the Tulsa Race Riot and/or who had vivid details of the incident. It is a moving story you will never forget. Be patient while reading the first couple of chapters, for it is important to be able to identify with each character in order to understand their success, failures and their role in the story.

American History 101

Prosperous and comfortable life was destroyed one fateful summer day in 1921. The Tulsa burrough of Greenwood was once a place where African-Americans thrived. It was known as the "promised land" to blacks living in the Jim Crow South, and thousands of African-Americans migrated there, searching for a better life. There they erected beauty parlors, movie theaters, restaurants, dry cleaners, and numerous other businesses. These businesses were patronized by other Greenwood residents who worked for white Tulsans, but who were not allowed to buy goods and services at white-owned establishments. This was all brought to a screeching halt when a young black man by the name of Dick Rowland had a misleading encounter with a white woman in an elevator. The charges were ridiculous and white officials knew it. However, the officials promised Rowland his day in court. But, a leading local newspaper used yellow journalism to sell papers that day. The headline read "TO LYNCH NEGRO TONIGHT." Greenwood blacks had heard the horrific tales of lynchings and destruction across the country. The Greenwood residents proclaimed "Not here." So, when an angry white mob gathered at the courthouse where Rowland was being held, the Greenwood people became nervous. After assembling, they decided to drive across the tracks to the white section of Tulsa armed with their rifles to make sure the mob wasn't going to carry out the headline. Feeling as if they were being threatened by the blacks, the whites armed themselves immediately after the car left. This was the turning point, for it was no longer about Dick Rowland. It was about the perception that the blacks thought they could come into town and threaten the whites. It was about the fact that many blacks in Greenwood lived better than their white counterparts. It was about greed, it was about jealousy, and it was about hate. Fueled by this hate, over the next two days, white Tulsans murdered over 300 black Greenwood residents. They burned homes, businesses, schools, and churches. They shot any black person they saw in the white side of town, and stacked their bodies on flatbed trucks, to be hauled to unmarked graves in the countryside. The Greenwood townspeople did not give up without a fight, however. They defended their homes and community with fervor. But they were outnumbered and outgunned and soon, Greenwood was nothing but ash, a shadow of its former existence. Tim Madigan writes a comprehensive account of the maelstrom that occured those days in Oklahoma. He uses personal interviews, historical documents, oral histories, and narration to bring The Burning together. The book reads like fiction, the interviewees and survivors have strong voices, and even those who witnessed the destruction, but have since passed, have their say against the tragedy that was The Burning. Everyone should know about what happened in Tulsa. It is as much part of our history as the Revolutionary War or the Watts Riots. Ma

Puts human faces on this tragedy

Up to this point, Tulsa native Scott Ellsworth's "Death In a Promised Land" has been the best book on the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, but Tim Madigan has done an excellent job with this story. Ellsworth's (who graciously gave Madigan assistance with this volume) book on this subject was written in a scholarly "matter of factly" tone, well-written and long on historical detail but somewhat short of passion for the subject. Madign gets deep into the emotions of the people behind the events and trasforms this detail into a story that the readers can identify with. The details and excellent use of primary sources makes it hard to beleive that it only took a year to write this book! Historians and casual readers will both find this book interesting (if extremely sad) reading. However, the ending does say much for the triumph of the human spirit and the book does give and interesting lesson to the depths and heights of human behavior.You may still want to check out Ellworth's book for a primary introduction to the subject, as it goes a bit deeper into the background of Tulsa to understand the events. But overall, Madigan's work is as of now the best book on this subject.

Riveting account of horrible tragedy

Tim Madigan has done a masterful job retelling a horrible but largely forgotten chapter in our nation's history. What distinguishes Madigan's account from many other historical books is his storyteller's eye for detail. Particularly compelling is description of the distorted passions the white mob in Tulsa used to justify its horrible rampage. The Burning should be a must read for anyone with even a passing interest in American history.

Timely piece of American history

The Burning provides great insight into the dynamics of race relations as they existed in Tulsa Oklahoma circa 1920's. Madigan does an excellent job of laying the social, psychological and historical groundwork necessary for understanding the flourishing and prosperous black community of Greenwood within Tulsa. His extensive research chronicles factors within the white community of Tulsa, bringing into play a diverse mixture of key characters with their own social and racial agendas. As readers following the unfolding string of events, we find ourselves witnesses to one of the most atrocious, heartbreading and bloody crimes committed against any one group of individuals on American soil.Madigan draws directly from his own personal interviews with surviving eyewitnesses. Lucid, firsthand accounts provide vivid details of the carnage, slaughter and Pandemonium occuring on the streets of Greenwood on that fateful day in May, 1921. Madigan also uses a wealth of historical documents to provide for a salient, conscientious and unbiased account of what transpired as can be hoped for.The Burning gives us a rare opportunity to learn about one of the most reprehensible acts of terror carried out against one group of American citizens by another. In conjuction with this event, the fact that such a significant historical calamity could have gone underground and been safeguarded there for this many years is practically beyond belief. I have heard we are only as sick as the secrets we keep. Maybe in this time of global turmoil and fear, where mass hysteria and mob mentality simmer just beneath the surface, we might do better to take a closer look at ourself.Kudo's Madigan, what a worthwhile undertaking!