Lena and the Burning of Greenwood: A Tulsa Race Massacre Survival Story
by Nikki Shannon Smith
Publication Date: Jan 01, 2022
List Price: $7.95
Format: Paperback, 112 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
ISBN13: 9781666329445
Imprint: Stone Arch Books
Publisher: Capstone Press
Parent Company: Capstone Press
In the early 1920s, the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the wealthiest Black community in the United States. But Tulsa is still a segregated city. "Black Wall Street" and white Tulsa are very much divided. Twelve-year-old Lena knows this, but she feels safe and sheltered from the racism in her successful, flourishing neighborhood.
That all changes when Dick Rowland, a young Black man from Greenwood, is accused of assaulting a white woman. Racial tensions boil over. Mobs of white citizens attack Greenwood, terrorizing Black residents and businesses, and forcing many—including Lena and her family—to flee. Now Lena must help her family survive one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history.
Readers can learn the real story of the Tulsa Race Massacre from the nonfiction backmatter, including a glossary, discussion questions, writing prompts, and author’s note, in this Girls Survive story.
Books similiar to Lena and the Burning of Greenwood: A Tulsa Race Massacre Survival Story may be found in the categories below:
- Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure / Survival Stories
- Juvenile Fiction / Historical / United States / 20Th Century
- Juvenile Fiction / People & Places / United States / African American & Black
- Tulsa Race Massacre Books