"Deep Greenwood" Reading Series Kicks Off Tonight

Walking through Greenwood and Tulsa history step by step

One of my biggest takeaways from my years of research for Built From the Fire was that the story of Greenwood and Tulsa was not as unique as I thought. Black people were carving surprising paths to success in the Jim Crow era across the Deep South. And racial violence ignited in response to that success was unfortunately frequent.

Tonight I’ll be exploring the second half of that equation in more detail. I’m kicking off the “Deep Greenwood” community read series at All Souls Unitarian Church at 6:30 p.m. I’ll be in conversation with Bryan Hembree, Director of Arts & Culture for the University of Arkansas Multicultural Center. We’ll be drawing parallels between Tulsa and Arkansas a century ago—a town called Elaine was the site of a vicious race massacre of its own in 1919. But we’ll also be bringing the conversation into the present day, discussing the effort to limit the teaching of black history in Arkansas classrooms and how that mirrors what’s been going on here in Oklahoma.

I hope to see many of my fellow Tulsans there tonight. For folks outside the city, I’ve developed a reading schedule for following along with the Deep Greenwood series as it progresses between now and May. I’m exploring some options for us to have some kind of online discussion/book club conversation while the Deep Greenwood series is unfolding, so please stay tuned for more info on that.

Thank you again for your support.