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Hybrid: Second Floor Reads Non-Fiction Book Discussion

Built from the Fire by Victor Luckerson

Join us for our non-fiction book discussion group. This month’s title is Built From the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street by Victor Luckerson.

When Ed Goodwin moved with his parents to the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his family joined a community soon to become the center of black life in the West. But just a few 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 in one of the worst acts of racist violence in U.S. history.

The Goodwins and their neighbors soon rebuilt the district into “a Mecca,” in Ed’s words, where nightlife thrived and small businesses flourished. Ed bought a newspaper to chronicle Greenwood’s resurgence and battles against white bigotry, and his son Jim, an attorney, embodied the family’s hopes for the civil rights movement. But by the 1970s urban renewal policies had nearly emptied the neighborhood. Today the newspaper remains, and Ed’s granddaughter Regina represents the neighborhood in the Oklahoma state legislature, working alongside a new generation of local activists to revive it once again. 

In Built from the Fire, journalist Victor Luckerson tells the true story behind a potent national symbol of success and solidarity and weaves an epic tale about a neighborhood that refused, more than once, to be erased.

Reserve a copy of the book while registering (we'll let you know when it's ready to be picked up), or come to the Central Library Reference Desk.

Questions? Email discussion leader Susan Gibberman at sgibberman@stdl.org.

You can choose to attend this program in-person or watch online on Zoom. Please indicate your preference when registering. After registering, you will receive a link to the Zoom webinar at least three hours in advance of the program.

Want to switch your attendance preference from online to in-person (or vice versa)? No problem! Just give us a call at (847) 923-3347 and we'll take care of that for you.

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