Black Birds in the Sky

Colbert did a great job with her research and making Black Birds a really readable narrative, bookended by her own thoughts in the Preface and Afterwards. The first few chapters set up historical context for this massacre, going through other riots/massacres that happened right before Tulsa and the consistent violence enacted by white supremacy anytime Black people made advances towards equality. However, this means that the actual details and story of that night and morning are much more surface than more in-depth books like Hilary Beard's The Burning. This would be a great book to start with as an introduction to the Tulsa Race Massacre for 8th to adult, but would be well-paired with more primary sources or even more detailed nonfiction accounts.

I actually don't wanna say much about this book except it's an important part of history that needs to be remembered, so do give this book a try if you wanna know more about the community of Greenwood, Oklahoma, Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre. It's a well researched and emotionally evocative book and I'm glad to have read it. And I would definitely take from it what the author emphasizes - history matters, stories matter, and it also matters who is telling these stories; also keep asking questions, never stop seeking the truth or sharing it.