By Carole Boston Weatherford; Illustrated by Floyd Cooper
“ All it took was one elevator ride,
one seventeen-year-old white elevator operator
accusing a nineteen-year Black shoeshine man
of assault for simmering hatred to boil over. “
Disaster and destruction, caused by racial hatred and horrific sentiments destroys this African American community, called Black Wall Street, until nothing remains: the buildings are gutted and robbed and over 300 Black people are killed. For decades no one spoke of this terror and the attacks until 1997 when the Tulsa Reconciliation Park was created in remembrance of the massacre.
I learned a piece of our American history that was never part of my schooling. This is a must read and share history book for middle elementary grade students. It is so powerful! It both reads like a poetic memory and is shocking.