The Ground Breaking: The Tulsa Race Massacre and an American City's Search for Justice (Hardback)

Scott Ellsworth (author)

£16.99

Hardback 304 Pages / Published: 20/05/2021

Coming soon

Awaiting publication

Synopsis

'A brilliant update that recounts the events with the swiftness of an especially grim crime thriller. ... An essential historical record surrounding heinous events that have yet to be answered with racial justice.' Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

'The persistence, empathy and painstaking research of The Ground Breaking move us much closer to the justice that the victims of Greenwood, and the people of America, deserve. Heartbreaking and inspiring.' Beto O'Rourke

A gripping exploration of the worst single incident of racial violence in American history, timed to coincide with its 100th anniversary.

On 31 May 1921, in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a mob of white men and women reduced a prosperous African American community, known as Black Wall Street, to rubble, leaving countless dead and unaccounted for, and thousands of homes and businesses destroyed.

But along with the bodies, they buried the secrets of the crime. Scott Ellsworth, a native of Tulsa, became determined to unearth the secrets of his home town. Now, nearly 40 years after his first major historical account of the massacre, Ellsworth returns to the city in search of answers. Along with a prominent African American forensic archaeologist whose family survived the riots, Ellsworth has been tasked with locating and exhuming the mass graves and identifying the victims for the first time. But the investigation is not simply to find graves or bodies - it is a reckoning with one of the darkest chapters of American history.

Publisher: Icon Books Ltd
ISBN: 9781785787270
Number of pages: 304
Dimensions: 216 x 135 mm

MEDIA REVIEWS

'Absolutely riveting ... With a stunning combination of objectivity and empathy, it demonstrates how even in polarized times we can come together in pursuit of truth. ... Anyone interested in America's future should read it as a template for the reconciliation that lies ahead.' -- Tim Blake Nelson
'The persistence, empathy and painstaking research of The Ground Breaking move us much closer to the justice that the victims of Greenwood, and the people of America, deserve. Heartbreaking and inspiring.' -- Beto O'Rourke
'The Ground Breaking will rattle you, and it should. It will move you toward a harder wisdom, and it must.' -- Tim Tyson
'I believe that the path of true racial reconciliation runs through millions of American Whites, whose hearts would be changed if they only knew our history. To those people I would simply say this: Please read this book.' -- Tim Madigan
'Immensely readable and thoroughly engaging, The Ground Breaking is a remarkable blend of history and memoir that could not be more timely and informative.' -- Gilbert King
'This book should be essential reading for anyone interested in an honest grappling with our racial past and with the task of moving forward.' -- Kenneth W. Mack
'In a time marked by raw nativism, gangster capitalism and white supremacy off its leash, well-funded mobs winked at from above committed racially-driven mass terror against Black citizens and American democracy. Those who find themselves mystified when America's white power movement storms the U.S. Capitol in 2021 need to take a good look back at Tulsa, Oklahoma a century ago.' -- Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
'A brilliant update that recounts the events with the swiftness of an especially grim crime thriller. ... An essential historical record surrounding heinous events that have yet to be answered with racial justice.' * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *