Built from the Fire

The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street; One Hundred Years in the Neighborhood That Refused to Be Erased

By: Victor Luckerson

Narrated by: JD Jackson

Length: 19 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

A multigenerational saga of a family and a community in Tulsa’s Greenwood district, known as “Black Wall Street,” that in one century survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, urban renewal, and gentrification

“Ambitious . . . absorbing . . . By the end of Luckerson’s outstanding book, the idea of building something new from the ashes of what has been destroyed becomes comprehensible, even hopeful.”—Marcia Chatelain, The New York Times

WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

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.

©2023 Victor Luckerson (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Exceptional . . . Luckerson’s thoroughly researched and empathetically written account—anchored in the complex experiences of the Greenwood residents themselves—gives voice to a powerful, exquisitely multifaceted community that refuses to be silenced.”—The Washington Post

“Cinematic . . . Built from the Fire offers a case study of how present-day Greenwood, and dozens of other struggling Black communities, got here. Luckerson reserves his final chapters for green shoots of hope.”—The Star Tribune

“The scope, the elegance, and the power of Luckerson’s tale is simply breathtaking and empowering.”—Carol Anderson, author of White Rage

Excellent connecting the past to the present

The author does an excellent job describing how violent historical events can change trends in one direction with long term lingering consequences. The consequences have profound impact upon individuals and communities. One wonders what would happen if Oklahoma and Tulsa paid reparations to families. The amount of money is not that great, but the symbolism would bring hope and a lift to many who need to move on past this continuing injustice.

Historic relevance

Insightfully rich history, more often uplifting than tragic, about the times before and after the Tulsa massacre.

Brilliant and Moving

NOT just the infamous massacre but the whole history of Tulsa’s Greenwood district and its Black Wall Street. Mr. Luckerson uses Greenwood as a lens to examine not just effects of the massacre but subsequent government programs that further tore at the fabric of black life in Tulsa. Consequently you have a wonderful look at the dynamic and vibrant growth of this prosperous black business district in the early part of the century, its utter destruction in 1921 and then the struggles that followed. These included the lack of any reparations for the massacre itself, redlining, being excluded from beneficial New Deal programs, neighborhood busting highways and urban renewal. A great story of family’s and their seemingly endless hope and perseverance.

Drawing hope from the ashes of tragedy

It is impossible to fully understand American history without grappling with the violent extremes to which racism has driven some and the incredible hurdles and traumas that others have had to fight their way through in order to survive and prosper. This engaging book is about both.

I know, being Jewish, that historical trauma is a real thing with consequences that extend across generations in ways that it is really hard for those who don’t have such trauma in their psyches to comprehend. This book is about the before, during and after of the Greenwood massacre, an event so senseless and incredible that it is frankly hard to believe such a thing could happen in America.

But it’s not a downer - the massacre takes up about two chapters preceded by the incredible story of black people freed from slavery just 50 years past building their own very business-oriented community. Many chapters follow afterward about the people of Greenwood rebuilding their legacy after having everything stolen away from them.

Though the book is a bit long, I was never bored by this narrative of the life of the black middle class anchored by the incredible Williams family and the newspaper they kept grounded in the community for a century.

Great narrator, BTW - with a flat tone like you’d expect from the storyteller of an old fashioned detective show but with appropriately dramatic intonation when portraying the characters. You really get to see life as they have lived it.

Incredibly rich and detailed storytelling about an important part of American history

Victor Luckerson’s “Built from the Fire” is a breathtaking work that calls to mind the deep research and storytelling of writers like Isabel Wilkerson and Robert Caro. You may think you know the story of Black Wall St. but Luckerson reveals there’s so much more to this story than we’ve been told. It’s essential reading.

Profound. Thorough. Compelling. Salient.

This story is a microcosm of the reason why our cities are still defined by such drastic spatial inequities. Greenwood, and other historically Black neighborhoods, weren’t just the victims of one tragic event but generations of harm and disinvestment. We need this story.