Victor Luckerson received a 2024 Lillian Smith Book Award for his book "Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street."
In Built from the Fire, Victor Luckerson delves into the legacy of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, which continues to impact the city’s Black community more than a century later.
The book traces the history of the Greenwood community from a beacon of Black entrepreneurial success during the Jim Crow era through the violent massacre, which began with a false accusation against a Black teenager and led to the destruction of more than 1,200 homes and nearly every business in Greenwood, and into the present day.
Prominent figures like Loula Williams, a successful businesswoman, and the Goodwin family, whose descendants continue to play a significant role in Greenwood, are central to Luckerson’s narrative.
The book documents Greenwood’s history post-massacre, emphasizing the persistent challenges of white supremacy, class stratification, and governmental neglect.
Luckerson, a journalist from Montgomery, Alabama, is the University of Tulsa’s writer in residence for 2023-2024.
In addition to sharing his research and insights with students on campus, Luckerson is collaborating with the College of Law’s Buck Colbert Franklin Legal Clinic to investigate lawsuits filed by Greenwood property owners in the aftermath of the massacre.
He has written for esteemed publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, and Smithsonian magazine.
