Lena and the Burning of Greenwood: A Tulsa Race Massacre Survival Story by Nikki Shannon Smith (2022)

I stumbled upon this book at my local library and immediately popped it in my overflowing basket of books. As a former social studies teacher, it embarrasses me to say that I only learned of the Tulsa Race Massacre in my 30s. There is so much history that is actively suppressed from the history books. I am thrilled to see these important historical events brought to our kids in a meaningful, engaging way. Lena is a fictional character set in a very real part of history. She lives a safe life with her family in Greenwood - a flourishing black town that Booker T. Washington named the “Negro Wall Street of America.” Then, a white woman claims a black man from Greenwood hurt her. The man is apprehended and brought to the police station, but this sparks a massive uprising amongst white people in Tulsa. They head to Greenwood and completely destroy the entire town and kill many Greenwood residents in the process. 

Heart: It is so important that we face the racial abuse our country has, and continues to, perpetrate. It makes me think of Sonya Massey. A fellow Illinois woman who called the police this month because she feared someone was prowling around her house. She was murdered by the responding police officer. I hate violence, but I watched the police body camera footage because I felt it was important to bear witness. It was worse than I could have imagined. The Tulsa Race Massacre is a hard part of our history, but we must bear witness to it. 

As my all time favorite author and activist, Bryan Stevenson, said in his book, Just Mercy: “We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others.”

Head: This book is the part of an entire series called, “Girls Survive,” published by Capstone Publishing, an educational publishing group that often publishes a diverse range of authors. I absolutely cannot wait to read more books in this series. I am eyeing the 9/11, Trail of Tears, Mayflower and more! They state that this illustrated chapter book series is for grades 3-5, but my 6th grade niece, who loves to read, devoured this book in one day! This series is a great way to engage kids in a variety of historical events. Bravo, Capstone Publishing!