When the Goodwin family moved to the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1914, they joined a community on the cusp of becoming the center of black life out West. But just a few years later, on May 31, 1921, a white mob laid waste to their entire district, destroying thirty-five blocks and murdering as many as three hundred people in one of the worst acts of racist violence in U.S. history.

The Goodwins and their neighbors, however, soon rebuilt the district into “a Mecca,” where nightlife thrived and small businesses flourished. The family bought a newspaper to chronicle Greenwood’s resurgence and battles against white bigotry, even as they weathered new threats such as urban renewal in the 1970’s and gentrification in the 21st century. Today the newspaper remains, as Regina Goodwin represents the neighborhood in the Oklahoma state legislature, working alongside a new generation of local activists to revive it once again. 

In Built from the Fire, journalist Victor Luckerson tells the true story behind a potent national symbol of success and solidarity and weaves an epic tale about a neighborhood that refused, more than once, to be erased.

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Recognition for Built From the Fire

• Winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award

• Winner of the Society for Advancing Business Writing and Editing’s Best in Business Book Award

• Winner of the Outstanding Book on Oklahoma History award from the Oklahoma Historical Society

• Named a Top 100 Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times

• Named a Top 50 Nonfiction Book of the Year by the Washington Post