Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carol Boston Weatherford (2021) celebrates Black Americans’ success for much of the book. This contributes significantly to the horror when this community was destroyed in 1921. At the time, a community called Greenwood was home to a large, segregated community. Despite segregation laws, the Black section of Greenwood thrived.It had restaurants, grocery stores, furriers, libraries, a hospital and a good school system. However, when a white teen accused a Black man of assault, hatred fueled a terrible conflict. Hundreds of Blacks were killed; thousands became homeless. Floyd Cooper’s illustrations in a sepia palette remind us of a long lost newsreel. Two pages of notes by Weatherford and Cooper fill in historical context. The inside back cover is a photograph of the devastation.
