Horror In Human History

As early as December 2020, the reviews were being published.  To date, there are six starred reviews.  Starred reviews from professional publications are an indicator of a book's value to the reading community and society as a whole.  While a few, or sometimes many, may not agree with those professional assessments, at the very least these reviews ask us to form our own opinions by personally reading the title.

What you can never know, until you hold this book in your hands and read it, is how stunning it is and how justified those starred reviews are.  When turning the pages of Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre (Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., February 2, 2021) written by Carole Boston Weatherford with artwork by Floyd Cooper, you truly have to remind yourself to breathe.  As the events are presented in eloquent words and illuminating images, you find yourself horrified at the suffering inflicted on an entire group of people

Once upon a time near Tulsa, Oklahoma,

prospectors struck it rich in the oil fields.

This richness invited people from many places to converge and begin their lives anew.  In Tulsa, a community named Greenwood became the home for 

Black Indians, . . . formerly enslaved people, and Exodusters.

In Greenwood, there was a total population of close to ten thousand individuals.  Unjust segregation laws were firmly established.  In spite of these laws, the Black citizens flourished.

Along Greenwood Avenue, a series of businesses grew.  It was known as Black Wall Street.  These business provided a vast array of services and essential needs like grocery stores and a shop for automobile repair.  Here they had their own modes of transportation, libraries, a hospital, and an outstanding school system.  Dr. A. C. Jackson, a nationally known Black surgeon resided in Greenwood. (He perished in the massacre.)  For guests to the Black community in Greenwood there was the grand Stradford Hotel.  One of two movie theaters seated eight hundred viewers.

This deserved prosperity was about to disappear.  On May 30, 1921, a Black teenager and a white elevator operator still in her teens were in an elevator together.  The girl accused the boy of assault.  Hundreds of whites gathered where he was being held intent on removing him from custody.  A much fewer number of Blacks, thirty, gathered in his defense.  They fought and twelve died initially.

Among the whites, a rumor of an impending Black attack incited the growing mob to move their focus from the courthouse to Greenwood.  Unprepared, the Greenwood population in their homes and businesses fled for their lives.  What followed was then, and is still today, the worst kind of nightmare.  Three hundred Black people lost their lives.  Three hundred.  More than eight thousand were homeless.  Eight thousand.  Heartbreak forced people to leave and resolve prompted others to stay and rebuild.  Today when visiting Tulsa, there is a place for remembrance, reflection, and commitment for truth and the hope it brings.

Using a recurring phrase,

Once upon a time, 

author Carole Boston Weatherford takes us deeper and deeper into the lives of the residents of Greenwood.  She moves from Tulsa as a whole, to Greenwood, to Black Wall Street, and then to Greenwood, giving us a picture of what this community represented for the people who lived and worked there.  Very specific facts bring Greenwood in its thriving glory alive for us. 

After the elevator incident, the focus of the narrative shifts to a depiction of mounting tension as the information compounds.  The four connecting words are used only once more to present the resulting devastation.  As with the best kind of writing, this ends with a single powerful and unifying word.  Here is a passage.

Once upon a time in Greenwood

there were barbershops and beauty salons.

Miss Mabel's Little Rose

Beauty Salon boomed

on Thursdays when maids

who worked for white families

got coiffed on their day off

and strutted in style

up and down 

Greenwood Avenue. . . .

Disbelief, fear, and agony are shown on the features of the collected faces of the victims of the massacre on the open and matching dust jacket and book case.  The image shown on the front, right, extends over the spine to the left, on the back.  In the background are destroyed buildings ravaged by fires.  The spreading darkness is smoke from those fires, but to this reader also embodies the darkness of racism.  The family we see on the front displays a mixture of various emotions along with the need for flight.  

On the back the seven people, from various walks of life, portray all ages, and are symbols of moments in the narrative.  For example, the man in military attire could serve as a reminder of the World War One veterans who offered assistance in defending the accused young man, homes and businesses until they were overwhelmed.  On the opening endpapers is a bird's eye view of Greenwood Avenue at its best.  The closing endpapers offer a photographic portrait of Greenwood after the massacre.  For the title page portions of the jacket and case fill in the letters.  This is a striking effect.

These illustrations rendered by Floyd Cooper 

using oil and erasure

elevate and intensify the words.  The landscapes in the scenes are realistic and historically informative.  Sometimes, Floyd Cooper brings us close to the individuals.  These people, these individuals, appear as alive as we are. 

For the pages describing the elevator ride there is complete darkness except for the light coming from the inside of the elevator.  We see the teenage boy with his hand on the up and down buttons and the teenage girl standing in the elevator.  This exemplifies a huge change, and it asks us to pause.  Another momentous picture is a close-up of three faces, one Black man and two white men, during the first clash at the courthouse.

One of my many, many favorite of these two-page paintings is for the words above noted.  It is on Greenwood Avenue with the buildings on the left and right and a car on the right fading to the back.  On the left a family of four, wearing beautiful period clothing, walks down the street.  The older of the daughters is carrying several books.  The mother is wearing a fur-collared coat.  A brooch on her coat and a necklace indicate their economic status.  The father wearing a tie and longer coat holds the youngest daughter's hand.  She wears a yellow coat and matching hat.  There is something about this family which is movingly normal.  On the right is a women with hair recently styled.  She carries a gift box tied in a bow.

This book, Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre written by Carole Boston Weatherford with art by Floyd Cooper, no matter how many times you read it, is excellent in supplying readers with an accurate explanation of what happened. In the words of Carole Boston Weatherford, it is exemplary in  

rescuing events and figures from obscurity by documenting American history.

The author's and illustrator's notes on the closing two pages further enlighten readers.  It is of the utmost importance to have this title in your personal and professional collections.

To discover more about Carole Boston Weatherford and Floyd Cooper and their other remarkable work, please follow the link attached to their names to access their websites.  Carole Boston Weatherford has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Floyd Cooper has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.  At The Lerner Blog are articles titled Unspeakable: A Visit to Tulsa's Black Wall Street and Q & A with Carole Boston Weatherford.  This book is featured at School Library Journal, A Fuse #8 Production and Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast with extensive discussions and observations.  For further research you might want to read 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre at the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum website and this article dated June 19, 2020 at PBS News Hour titled What happened 99 years ago in The Tulsa Race Massacre.

UPDATE:  At School Library Journal The Classroom Bookshelf, there is a series of teaching ideas and resources for this title.

UPDATE:  At Lerner there are more resources, including a teaching guide for grades 3-8.

A Dream, Wishes And Hope

We all have dreams regardless of or depending upon our age and current circumstances.  Some dreams like wishing we would sprout wings, flying to parts unknown, or twitching our nose like Samantha on Bewitched to work our magic are less than realistic.  Others can be realized over time with hard work, having the right people in our lives and a touch of luck.

On November 13, 1951 something wonderful happened in New York City...at the Metropolitan Opera House.  It was a first.  It was witnessed by a little girl with hope as big as the sky.  It's a beautiful, uplifting story found in Kristy Dempsey's A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina's Dream (Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) ) with illustrations by Floyd Cooper.

Stars hardly shine in the New York City sky,
with the factories spilling out pillars of smoke and streetlights spreading bright halos round their pin-top faces.

Even though no stars are seen night after night a young girl sits on the rooftop of her apartment building searching overhead, her lips moving, speaking softly of her wish.  Her Mama says wishes don't make dreams come true.  The fulfillment of dreams is about having hope.

Continuing Mama says hope is not an easy thing but requires work, hard work.  Not only does the girl's mother take in laundry to earn extra money but she has been employed at the ballet school cleaning and sewing costumes before her daughter was born. This woman is no stranger to doing what needs to be done.

The world of the ballet school becomes a part of the girl's heart.  Trying on costumes her Mama sees her dream begin to grow.  When she dances backstage during a recital the Ballet Master sees her dream getting bigger.

Noticing her talent he allows her to attend classes with the other girls even though as an African American she will not be allowed to perform with the white girls. The part in her heart becomes larger and larger, day after day, as she nourishes her hope with hard work.  One day a headline in an old newspaper catches her attention.

Money set aside for one thing is spent on another.  On a Tuesday evening this little girl and her Mama are watching Janet Collins perform as the first African American prima ballerina in the Metropolitan Opera House.  Once hope takes hold it won't let go.


The language used by Kristy Dempsey swirls out from the pages of this book, wrapping right around you with promise on every page.  Narrated by the young girl, within the reading of the first two pages, you are emotionally connected to the lives of her and her mother.  Readers can't help but enjoy learning about the performance of Janet Collins, of the significance it held then and now, through the heart and mind of this character.  Here is a sample passage.

"Brava, ma petite," he told me.  "Brava."
That's when hope picked my dream up
from the floor of my heart,
just like Mama said,
and it started growing.


Floyd Cooper is a master of a very unique artistic technique; a subtractive process using mixed media.  The quality found on the two-page illustration of the matching dust jacket and book case, the glow along the building tops, the sky at dusk with a few stars, the sense of softness, the feeling of flow and the contentment on the girl's face is on every picture in this book.  Each painting, a full two pages, captures the essence of the setting, the people or a moment.

The chosen color palette provides rich warmth.  You can't help but feel the longing, the commitment, and love, different kinds of love, portrayed through the facial features and movement of the characters.  Details take readers back to the time period; a model of car, clothing styles, and architecture.

One of my favorite illustrations is a close up of the girl's face being held by the hands of the Ballet Master after he sees her dancing.  The position of his hands and the look on her face takes my breath away.  It's absolutely stunning.  Another glorious picture is of the little girl imagining herself dancing along with Janet Collins on the stage.  They look as if they are floating above the audience near the ceiling.


In her author's note at the end of the book Kristy Dempsey states:

I hope many women, regardless of their age or the color of their skin, are inspired to achieve their own dreams through her historic performance.  

A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina's Dream written by Kristy Dempsey with paintings by Floyd Cooper is one of those books which makes your heart feel lighter than air filling it with possibilities.  With this combination of narrative and illustrations you can't help but believe anything can happen.  Please read this book as a group read aloud or in a one-on-one setting.  I know it will make a difference to those who experience this story.

With These Hands...

Mentors, colleagues and friends can make a huge difference in shaping your reading life, offering encouragement and flinging doors wide open into unexplored worlds.  Every single time I read a nonfiction picture book I am reminded of Donalyn Miller's essay at the Nerdy Book Club, Book Gap Challenge and more recently of Alyson Beecher's Kid Lit Frenzy blog posts,  Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday.  A single, carefully-worded invitation and a weekly reminder can be very powerful for members in a reading community.

When completing the reading of many nonfiction picture books, it is with a sense of gratitude the final page is turned.  You long to personally thank the author and illustrator or author/illustrator for their efforts in bringing little known or unknown information into your world. With every reading of Brick by Brick (Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers) written by Charles R. Smith Jr. with illustrations by Floyd Cooper, I continue to be struck by the strength of the words, pictures and of the people who grace the pages.

Under a hazy,
hot summer sun,
many hands work
together as one.

As a new country, having gained freedom from British rule, the United States had a considerable amount of building to do.  One structure made would be the home of the president, The White House.  Land was cleared, stone was dug and broken and wood was sawed using slaves.

They were rented, these humans, working day in and day out in the grueling heat and bug-infested land. Their owners would collect the day's pay, twelve-hour days.  Without the use of modern engineering and machines, it was the hands of these men which completed all the necessary tasks.

Their hands held saws, chisels, hammers, shovels and pick axes working until they were raw and bleeding.  The younger slaves formed the bricks from clay, sand and water.  Mortar was made from oystershells, rock, lime and sand.  All by hand. So many hands. So much work.

Tradesmen taught the slaves more intricate craftmanship.  With these skills they were paid, money to be used to purchase freedom.  Shilling by shilling much was gained.  A home for a president built by the hands of slaves.


Thorough, meticulous research supports the solid, powerful words of Charles R. Smith Jr. The rhythm one feels from his rhyming words is truly of many hands working.  By repeating certain phrases, together as one, hazy hot sun, twelve hours a day, and brick by brick the cadence captures readers' attention, not releasing it even when the cover is closed.  Including the names of the slave workers makes this a very personal experience, unforgettable.


Beginning with the double page spread spanning the matching jacket and cover, award-winning Floyd Cooper recreates the past for readers, bringing them into the everyday lives of these slave workers.  Inside a single-page landscape featuring the finished White House provides a fitting vista for the title.  The following two-page illustration, a line of workers carrying their tools, some in shackles, voices lifted in conversation or song, provides a place for the verso and dedication.  It's stunning.

All of the illustrations, two-page paintings, edge to edge, spectacularly portray the narrative; most bringing us close to the people.  The faces, the hands, the physical fortitude and emotions shown on each individual are incredible.  The artistic technique used by Cooper forms a texture, making his illustrations seem to breathe.  I have several favorite illustrations but the one for the words:

Freedom has a price
in a land of liberty,
so slave hands toil
to no longer be property.

with the people of all ages gathered together on a grassy meadow looking upward and out is extremely moving.

I consider Brick by Brick written by Charles R. Smith Jr. with illustrations by Floyd Cooper to be a shining example of the best kind of nonfiction.  It brings the past strikingly into the present, informing with poetry and pictures that have their own kind of beauty.  Please follow the links embedded in each of their names to gain a greater understanding of the author and illustrator.

This link will take you to the publisher website to view several pages inside the book.  This link is to an interview of Floyd Cooper conducted three years ago giving insight into his process.  Below is an outstanding video book talk by Charles R. Smith Jr. about this volume.