Fire in Beulah

"A haunting, engrossing portrait of two families - one white, one Black - whose lives are woven together and then shattered" (The Washington Post) by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Oil-boom opulence, fear, hate, and lynchings are the backdrop for this riveting novel about one of the worst incidents of violence in American history. Althea Whiteside, an oil-wildcatter's high-strung white wife, and her enigmatic Black maid, Graceful, share a complex connection during the tense days of the Oklahoma oil rush. Their juxtaposing stories - and those of others close to them - unfold as tensions mount to a violent climax in the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, during which whites burned the city's prosperous Black neighborhood to the ground. The massacre becomes the crucible that melds and tests each of the character in this masterful exploration of the American race story and the ties that bind us irrevocably to one another.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 12/31/2001
ISBN: 9780142000243
Pages: 384
Weight: 0.77lbs
Size: 8.44h x 5.54w x 0.85d
Award: Oklahoma Book Award - Honor Book

Review Citations: Black Issues Book Review 03/01/2002 pg. 36