Any time the master of nonfiction for children, Carole Boston Weatherford, is paired with superb artist Floyd Cooper, a wonderful children’s book is guaranteed. I didn’t waste any time considering whether I would request a copy when Net Galley offered an advance reading copy of Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre. The book comes out tomorrow, February 2, 2021.
Carole’s beautiful words and Floyd’s art tell the story of a Black community, descended from Black Indians, formerly enslaved people, and Exodusters who established a thriving profitable community in a 35-mile square area across the train tracks from the white community in Tulsa. Segregation, voter suppression, and laws forbidding interracial marriage formed the backdrop for the community. Within those restrictions, nearly two hundred businesses and many community services rose with the area gaining the label, “Black Wall Street.”
Into this prosperity that was begrudged by many whites, an inciting incident in 1921 caused resentment to boil over and then to escalate into mob violence and eventually the loss of the community itself. Little notice of any of this was in the news and the story remained buried for about seventy-five years. Today Tulsa’s Reconciliation Park commemorates the victims and honors the role of African Americans in Oklahoma history.
This book did not disappoint. Carole Boston Weatherford’s words bring the time to life. Floyd Cooper’s art takes the reader to the place and opens the faces of the people in his portraits. In this appropriate beginning for Black History Month, I would recommend Unspeakable as a way to open history to any children who touch your life.