Black Bird in the Sky; The Story and Legacy of The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert

Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this nonfiction book with my Albright College Book Club friends and also because I love anything Brandy Colbert writes. This is not an easy book to read as it lays bare the facts of the June 1, 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. There was and still is many falsehoods about what happened that day and why it was basically wiped out of history---a prosperous black community in the Greenwood District of Tulsa (which also had a white section) was burned, decimated (people & buildings) and not properly investigated after the fact by the white populace in control of everything---government, newspapers, schools. Colbert's account must be read by all---this is history that was not in the history books after it happened, but her painstaking research has shown again what white violence against blacks caused and propagated after and through to today as history that must be addressed, remedied and stopped.

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Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh did I love the narration of this awesome audiobook by Allison Hiroto! The characters in this saga tore my heart open (Daisuke, Hoonie, Yangjin, Sunja, Baek Isak, Koh Hansu, Yoseb, Kyunghee, Noa, Mozasu, Kim, Tamaguchi, Goro, Akiko, Yumi, Mieko, Bingo, Hideo Takano, Solomon, Risa Iwamura, Koichi, Ume, Haruki, Ayame) I could not stop listening to the history of Japan, Korea and the judgments against these people and their lives as they try to survive in a racist world where they are always judged unfairly for being Korean. I also came to love the many characters and their families and their struggles to find happiness and survive. But what this book taught me most about what the love of families for their children and the hopes and fears for these children as they become adults. Gripping, beautiful, and mesmerizing, a must read!!!

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