Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

 Weatherford tells the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre in measured, simple prose, explaining the facts without being graphic about the elements of the tragedy.

Descendants of slaves, Native Americans, and Exodusters had created a thriving community in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the turn of the century. Despite segregation, prejudice, and oppression, they prospered. Their community included business people who wanted a better life for their families than sharecropping and returning veterans from WWI who fought for a country that didn't honor them in return with basic rights. They had homes, churches, schools, and a community. In 1921, with the support of white police and political leaders, a mob used the pretext of a Black boy insulting a white girl to loot, murder, and destroy the community that had been known as the Black Wall Street.

Over 300 people were killed, including a famous doctor, veterans who tried to defend their homes and families, and women and children. Nothing was left of the thriving community but a burnt shell and the surviving families were treated like criminals and prisoners. It would take over 75 years for any investigation into the events to take place and even in 2020 the unmarked graves of those murdered have still to be discovered.

Weatherford's afterword talks about her sources - including her own family - and the monuments built that look towards hope for a better future for the community of Greenwood. Floyd Cooper's earth tones show the warmth and bustle of the community and the fear and devastation that followed the attack, while refraining from graphic illustrations of violence.

This is an important part of US history that has too long been overlooked and hidden. Weatherford and Cooper have done a superb job of telling the painful, horrific story in a way that is both appropriate and accessible to young readers, focusing on simple emotions and a basic statement of facts without dwelling on specific instances of violence. As I think about where I'll place it in my library, it makes me think a lot about what history we consider "appropriate" for children. My first instinct is to put it in the juvenile nonfiction, although it's in picture book format, so teachers and parents can gently introduce it to kids, rather than our picture book neighborhoods where kids are more likely to pull it off the shelf. But the audience for my picture books is up to 3rd grade - I have nonfiction about the Holocaust like Jars of Hope located there, as well as books about various wars. Maybe it's more the immediacy of this - the Holocaust happened far away and it's easy for kids to think of it as just a sad historical event rather than something that could have happened to them - or that their families could have inflicted on others. It's definitely something I'll be thinking about as I'm planning to overhaul our neighborhoods sometime in the near future.

Verdict: A required purchase for all library collections that serve children and include materials on US history.

ISBN: 9781541581203; Published February 2021 by Carolrhoda; Borrowed from another library in my consortium; Purchased for the library