11 Books Published by Eakins Press Foundation on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Black Wall Street 100: An American City Grapples with its Historical Racial Trauma, endorsed by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission and the 400 Years of African American History Commission, furthers the educational mission of both bodies. The book offers updates on developments in Tulsa generally and in Tulsa’s Greenwood District specifically since the publication of my first book, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District.

Black Wall Street 100 is a window into what distinguishes the Tulsa of today from the Tulsa of a century ago. Before peering through that porthole, we must first reflect on Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District in all its splendor and squalor, from the prodigious entrepreneurial spirit that pervaded it to the carnage that characterized the 1921 massacre to the post-massacre rebound and rebuilding that raised the District to new heights to the mid-twentieth-century decline that proved to be a second near-fatal blow to the current recalibration and rebranding of a resurgent, but differently configured, community.

Tulsa’s trajectory may be instructive for other communities, similarly seeking to address their own histories of racial trauma. Conversely, Tulsa may benefit from learning more about the paths taken by other communities. Through sharing and synergy, we stand a better chance of doing the work necessary to spur healing and move farther toward the reconciliation of which we so often speak.

IncogNegro recounts, poetically, stories of race and diversity. Listen. Listening breeds empathy and moves us closer to walking the proverbial mile in someone else’s shoes. Everything begins with a first step. Ultimately, each of us has a role, in fostering an inclusive community in which we all have the opportunity to thrive.

This story, set in 1920, revolves around Charles "Charlie" Jackson, a twelve-and-a-half-year-old from Boley, Oklahoma, one of America’s best-known all-Black towns. Today Boley, once a thriving black mecca, is smaller and more subdued. Still, signifi-cant historical footprints line her streets and alleys.

’O, Write My Name’: American Portraits, Harlem Heroes presents us with portraits of fifty extraordinary people who participated in the great cultural movement that was the Harlem Renaissance. This collection by the photographer, critic and novelist Carl Van Vechten is a celebration of these inimitable writers, actors, musicians, painters, athletes and intellectuals as well as an acknowledgment of their unprecedented contribution to American art and culture. Van Vechten s friendship with his subjects is reflected in the intimate nature of these portraits. With an insightful introduction by Darryl Pinckney, this book is an homage to the African American men and women from the Harlem Renaissance who continue to inspire generations.

Black, Buckskin, and Blue takes an in-depth look at African Americans who were scouts and soldiers on the United States western frontier during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The author explores the incidents and adventures black men were involved in during the westward movement as scouts and soldiers. Bypassing the radical hostilities they endured in frontier towns - well covered by other books - the author examines military incidents involving black soldiers and desperadoes, as well as certain critical military engagements in which they made important contributions. This book is a continuation of the research begun by the author more than a decade ago for Black, Red, and Deadly: Black and Indian Gunfighters of the Indian Territory, 1870-1907.

Beulah Land. Paradise. Shangri-la. Oklahoma seemed to be all of these in the hostile, racist, post-Civil War South. Seeking both refuge and respect, pioneers such as Edward P. McCabe championed the idea of Oklahoma as an all-Black state. And all-Black towns proliferated there. Some sixty all-Black towns, along with Tulsa’s Greenwood District, bear witness to the deep creativity and incredible human spirit of the people who built them.

Early in the 20th century, the black community in Tulsa — the “Greenwood District” — became a nationally renowned entrepreneurial center. Frequently referred to as “The Black Wall Street of America,” the Greenwood District attracted pioneers from all over America who sought new opportunities and fresh challenges. Legal segregation forced blacks to do business among themselves. The Greenwood District prospered as dollars circulated within the black community. But fear and jealousy swelled in the greater Tulsa community.

The alleged assault of a white woman by a black man triggered unprecedented civil unrest. The worst riot in American history, the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, destroyed people, property, hopes, and dreams. The Greenwood District burned to the ground, only to be rebuilt from the ashes, bigger and better than ever. By 1942, some 242 businesses call the Greenwood District home. Having experienced decline in the ’60s — early ’80s, the area is now poised for yet another renaissance.

Tells the story of the Greenwood community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, its destruction in the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, and its rebuilding.

Here is an in-depth account of the worst riot in U.S. history, the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, assembled by one of Tulsa’s most important oral historians and community activists. "Using her breadth of knowledge, her many contact, and the trust she’s engendered in the Greenwood community, Gates has gathered the largest collection of survivors’ stories to appear in one volume. Placing these stories in historical context, and adding those of survivors’ descendents and white eyewitnesses, Gates brings the full story of the riot and its aftermath vividly alive for the reader." - Rilla Askew, award- winning author of The Mercy Seat and Fire in Beulah (a novel about the riot).

How Blacks sought the promised land in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Cherokee Bill, one of the meanest of the mean, was hanged for the murder of thirteen men by the time he was twenty. Author Art Burton recounts the exploits of Cherokee Bill and other black and Indian outlaws and lawmen in Black, Red, and Deadly, the story of law and lawlessness in the Indian Territory. He also tells of Dick Glass, the most notorious African American outlaw during the 1880s; Ned Christie, the most feared Indian outlaw of his time; the Rufus Buck gang, who gained instant notoriety with murder, plunder, and rape; as well as others who rode the trail of crime. The author introduces Ezekiel Proctor, the only man with whom the U.S. government made a treaty; Indian policemen known as "Lighthorsemen"; fearless Sam Sixkiller; black men who rode for Judge Parker, the "hanging judge," such as Grant Johnson; and Bass Reeves, the greatest manhunter of them all. African Americans were hired as peace officers because of their knowledge of Indian Territory. All-black cavalry units built Fort Sill in the 1870s and kept settlers in check before the Land Run of 1889 when Oklahoma Territory was opened to settlement.