Reviews

Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert

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spunglass's review against another edition

3.0

I will preface this by saying I did enjoy this book since it was very informative about a wide variety of events in America.

I bought this book under the assumption it was going to be solely focused on the Tulsa Race Massacre, and the aftermath... I was mistaken.

135 of the 188 pages are a preface dealing with racism around America prior to 1921. Which isn't a bad thing, everything was informative. The main complaint is if the book is listed as 'the story and legacy' but it's only until the last 53 pages where I get a true look at the events of June 1st, and it's the afterward that makes present day connections.

Most of the time while reading it, I felt like I was reading one of those really long clickbait articles that never really gets to the point. Earlier chapters kept ending with things like "And the depths of that evil would soon be exposed in Tulsa, Oklahoma" or "War had been declared on any and every Black person in Tulsa". And while reading I expected the next chapter to follow up with information about the Massacre; but it didn't.

So while I did learn a lot. I don't feel the book lived up to what it was marketed as.

mitskacir's review against another edition

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3.0

Rating this as 3 stars based on my personal enjoyment, but could see this being a 4 star book for teenage readers. I hardly knew anything about Tulsa, so this was a really educational book for me - I feel like I have a much better foundation for understanding what happened during the race massacre as well as how it fits into the larger scope of history before and since. Colbert did a good job situating the reader by exploring the lead up to Tulsa, in particular the Reconstruction Era, Jim Crow Laws, and lynchings, although personally I was familiar with this history so it was a bit repetitive and surface level. I think Colbert tried to center people in her historical retelling by including many names, their backgrounds, and their roles in the Tulsa community, which I can admire. However, I did find these a bit tiresome and wished there was more depth dedicated to the larger sociopolitical context, the roles institutions played, and the impact of the event. Occasionally I felt that Colbert leaned too much into the "people are racist" narrative instead of the "institutions are racist" interpretation. I read this for a bookclub with high school students, so I'm interested to hear how about what they got out of it.

c8_19's review against another edition

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informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Accessible education. Great context laid leading up to the recount of the massacre, and important reflection on how threads from historical events like these carry on into the future.