59 pages • 1-hour read
Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
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Essay Topics
Colbert introduces a brief history of the NAACP and their advocacy work. Conduct further research into the history and efforts of the NAACP to support civil rights in the United States and write an essay analyzing the importance of the NAACP in the push for racial equality from 1908 to 2024.
Examine Colbert’s use of quotations from massacre survivors between each of her chapters. What do you think the quotations are meant to evoke in the audience? Why are they significant to Colbert’s narrative approach?
Analyze Colbert’s use of images/photographs in the text. Explore which images she chose to include and why.
Compare and contrast President Andrew Johnson and President Donald Trump within the framework Colbert establishes in the Afterword.
Evaluate the structure of the book. Why does Colbert move between the action of 1921 and her historical analysis? What are the effects of that structural choice?
Research the impact of Jim Crow laws in different Southern states during the post-Reconstruction period, comparing and contrasting their implementation to the laws in Oklahoma as Colbert describes.
Using Colbert’s book for evidence and support, evaluate the extent to which white jealousy led to the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Discuss the similarities and differences between O. W. Gurley and J. B. Stradford. What were their relative impacts on the development of Greenwood? What were their business philosophies? How did they view their place in the community?
Explore the impacts of WWI on racial tensions within the United States. How does Colbert account for this in the text? Are there any relevant impacts that she does not account for?
Examine the intersection of oppression between the Indigenous peoples living in Oklahoma and the Black Americans living in Oklahoma. How did both groups face oppression and discrimination by the government, and how did the government treat them differently?
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