Customer Reviews

Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Race Reparations, and Reconciliation

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Professor Brophy has performed a great public service by writing a powerful, yet concise book about one of the most deadly race riots in United States history. On May 31, 1921, whites attacked black residents of the Greenwood addition of Tulsa, Oklahoma, burning, looting, and murdering. This book is absorbing, upsetting and fair.

Professor Brophy's work is meticulously researched and heavily footnoted. In addition to investigation of the riot by in-depth research of the available legal materials that were generated by the riot, Professor Brophy has relied heavily upon the news accounts and editorials of the two largest black newspapers in Oklahoma at that time, the Black Dispatch in Oklahoma City, and the Tulsa Star in Tulsa. These two newspapers displayed stunning activism and fearlessness in criticizing the actions of whites who committed criminal acts against blacks during the riot, and at other times during that time period. It is interesting that blacks, who had been aroused by recent lynchings of blacks in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, had vowed to forcibly resist further lynching. The Tulsa Riot itself was set in motion by black concern over the arrest of a black who had been arrested for allegedly attempting to rape a white female elevator operator, and was accelerated by white violence in response.

If this murderous event had occurred today, the City of Tulsa would have been liable under civil rights laws. The city issued special deputy badges to virtually anyone who asked for it, regardless of background or qualifications. Some of these "special deputies" were undoubtedly the main criminal actors in the riot, and city law enforcement officials did little, if anything, to stop their crimes. The city's use of these unqualified whites as law enforcement officers, who burned, looted and shot black residents of Greenwood, make an excellent case for reparations for those victims of the criminal activity in Tulsa who are still living and who were affected by the riot.

This book sheds great light on a terrible event, and is highly recommended.

David W. Lee
Edmond, OK

"At once meticulously factual and riveting, Alfred Brophy's moving account of a 1921 race riot that destroyed an economically self-reliant, vibrant African-American community clarifies why political action and enforcement of legal and human rights are indispensable prerequisites for black economic opportunity and material progress. Brophy also clarifies why Americans need to find the courage to acknowledge injustices of the recent past and contrive amends to help heal still-unresolved consequences scarring both victims and perpetrators." --Jane Jacobs

"A timely contribution to a variety of important and contentious discussions involving American history, African-American culture, and the problems encountered in attempting to right past wrongs...Brophy reminds us that deadly, cruel, racial violence is not something that only happens 'out there' in the rest of the world but is something that has also happened here in the United States on a massive scale and that just as others out there have fallen short in reckoning with their pasts, so too have Americans." --Randall Kennedy, from the Foreword

"In his timely, well documented and powerfully written book, Reconstructing the Dreamland, Professor Al Brophy vividly illustrates a chapter of America's sordid racist past by focusing on the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921. If we are to transcend the barriers to racial progress, we all must read Brophy's compelling work and use it as a seminal case in our path to avoid conflicts at all costs. Simply put, Professor Brophy's book is the best-written account of the Tulsa riots, and captures the people of Tulsa's resolve to never allow a similar travesty to occur again. Every person interested in racial justice should have this book at his or her disposal." --Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, Harvard Law School