Introduction
This essay is a description of a specific book. I am going to represent a description and a brief analysis of the book “Riot and Remembrance: America’s Worst Riot and Its Legacy” written by James S. Hirsch. This book can be considered a masterpiece of the literary sphere. It is of great significance, interest, and importance for both professional historians and for curious common readers who want to spend some time reading a good piece of literature instead of wasting it on the reading of some pulp fiction. “Riot and Remembrance: America’s Worst Riot and Its Legacy,” tells the readers about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921; it gives a description and analysis of the segregation and the riots which were the result of racial segregation.
Contents of the book
The list of contents of the book makes it clear from the very beginning that the structure of the book depends is based on the chronological description of the events that were the preconditions and the results of the cruelest and bloody riot in history of the United States of America. Thus the book begins with an introduction; then there come the beginnings in other words the events which caused the disorders and because of which so many people died during the riots. The preconditions include “The self-Made Oil Capital”; “The Promised Land”; “Race, Rape, and the Rope”; and “Mob Justice” (Hirsch VII).
Structure of the book
The book “Riot and Remembrance: America’s Worst Riot and Its Legacy” begins with the description of the city of Tulsa and the origin of the state of Oklahoma, and the way it became the “Oil Capital of the World” (Hirsch 11): “The field transformed the land of wheat, cotton, and cattle into a vital industrial resource and turned tired villages into vibrant cities” (Hirsch 11). The description embraces the period from the first settlers who named the town and until the moment of the riot.
The next part of the book tells the readers about the riot itself. The riot can be determined as a disturbance made by an unruly mob or (in-law) three or more persons. Thus people did not want to live in the conditions presupposed by the authorities, they did not want to “supply oilmen with the equipment, financing, and amenities that made their work possible and their lives pleasant” (Hirsch 11).
The book is the result of the investigation of reasons, preconditions, and results of the Riot of 1921, which can be considered one of the most fatal racial riots of the twentieth century in the United States of America. The author tells the readers about the riot and its legacy. The Tulsa Race War is the cruelest massacre in American history. The riot presupposed the killing of black people who were the residents of the Greenwood section of the city of Tulsa by thousands of white people including the representatives of the police forces.
The deadliest event happened in hot May of 1921when people were sleeping on the mattresses near their homes because of the high temperature. The white people killed the black ones and burned their houses to the ground. According to the book by James S. Hirsch, there were 300 people killed, other sources give another number of the victims of the disorder.
The author makes emphasis on the case of apartheid that took place during the riot. The black residents of the Greenwood section of the city of Tulsa became the victims of the racial bigotry caused by the disaster. Tulsa’s authorities accepted the responsibility for the events of the riot. Hirsch describes not only the events that can be considered the preconditions of the race riot, but also the further events, the successive years which deepened the gap between the black and white population of the city of Tulsa and its Greenwood section. The diversities between the representatives of the two races were becoming more obvious during successive years.
The author describes the unpleasant results of the riot of 1921in the present, and how the white and black citizens kept the memory of that night. Hirsch tells about the possible way which can help people to overcome the legacy of the horrible night of the massacre. One more thing that seems obvious is that the Tulsa Race Riot Commission was represented only by people from the media with the white color of skin; the representatives of the black newspapers did not get the opportunity to depict the event and its results from the point of view of the black people that became the victims of the race riot to provide balance.
Conclusion
The book tells about more and less obvious reasons for the riot. The more obvious ones are the tension between the black and white residents of the city of Tulsa; the economic situation, unemployment rate, and other preconditions of the riot. The less obvious reason was the object of all the periodicals when a black man tried to rap a white woman. “The story sent an electric charge through Tulsa. The talk of lynching raged ‘like a prairie fire,’ according to one white witness” (Hirsch 80).
Thus there were different reasons for the riot, but the most burning issue of that day was the tension between the citizens of the city possessing different colors of skin the racial discrimination. The book “Riot and Remembrance: America’s Worst Riot and Its Legacy” written by James S. Hirsch tells about the events of the horrible night and the legacy of the massacre of black people.
Works Cited
Hirsch, S. James. Riot and Remembrance: America’s Worst Race Riot and Its Legacy. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003.