Death in a Promised Land

Things I learned in history class as a student in Oklahoma: how to fold a paper map; the first governor of Oklahoma was an eccentric man who preferred to work in a log cabin. What I should have learned in history class as a student in Oklahoma: the Osage murders; the Tulsa Race Riot. This should be......more

The importance of this slim volume of history far exceeds its page count. With an introduction by noted historian John Hope Franklin and based on many interviews and much archival research, native Tulsan and scholar Scott Ellsworth chronicles the factors that led to the Tulsa Riot of 1921, the event......more

Shocking account of Black Wall Street, one of America's most prosperous communities in 1921 and target of the worst race riot in U.S. history. Of the 5 books I’ve read on the topic, this one is the slimmest volume. It’s also the first book written on the massacre, and the one subsequent authors cite......more

Should be required reading for all Oklahoma high school students - I know it’s more useful than Cold Sassy Tree or The Old Man and the Sea, and would easily pair with To Kill a Mockingbird.......more

death in a promised land (sick title btw) offers a brief overview of the tulsa riot itself and instead focuses more heavily on the before and after: the socioeconomic situation in the city & the racist incidents from prior years that allowed it to happen, and the (also racist) reaction of the white......more