This week we have a post by a first time contributor, Ashley Black. I am happy to have her on board. Ashley's post foreshadows one of the areas we will be discussing at the 2020 summit, YA lit and history. Take a look.
Dreamland Burning: A Charge to Make Sense of the Present by Interrogating Our Past
“The dead always have stories to tell. They just need the living to listen.” (Latham, 2017, p. 4)
In the last few years, the YAL market has been flooded with texts tackling contemporary issues of racially motivated assault, protest, and social activism; The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Dear Martin by Nic Stone, and All American Boys by Jason Reynolds are just a few titles comprising this genre. Many of these texts have found themselves on must read lists and YAL course syllabi, and when putting my own reading list together for my YAL course, I wanted to provide an experience for my students to explore these issues through meaningful reflection and engagement. While I have alternated several of the titles mentioned above on my YAL reading lists, Jennifer Latham’s Dreamland Burning has become one of my students’ favorites.
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| Written in alternating first-person narratives, Dreamland Burning tells the story of two adolescents living in Tulsa, OK, who witness racially motivated violence and hatred. The novel begins with Rowan Chase, a 17-year-old from upper-middle class mixed-race family, who is awakened on her first day of summer vacation by the sounds of construction workers renovating her family’s “back house.” After a few moments, the hammering and drilling suddenly stop, and Rowan quickly discovers why when she goes to investigate: the skeletal remains of a person, who had been hidden underneath the “back house” floor, have been uncovered. |  |
In this moment, Rowan does the only sensible thing she can think of, which is to call her best friend, James Galvez, to come over and help her decide what to do. They are able to do a little investigating, and before her mother can call the police, Rowan pockets a mildewed wallet she took off the skeleton. So begins Rowan’s investigation into who the skeleton is and how it came to be on her family’s property. Outside her self-assumed detective duties, Rowan also interns at the Jackson Clinic, a community health clinic, where she meets members from Tulsa’s lower socioeconomic community, most notably Arvin, an African American homeless man who frequents the center. Later in the novel, it is a hate crime directed at Arvin that highlights Rowan’s adolescent journey into adulthood.
The second narrative belonging to William Tillman is set 100 years before Rowan’s narrative in the weeks leading up to the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Like Rowan, William’s family is upper-middle class and mixed-race; his white father owns the Victory Victrola Shop in a developing downtown Tulsa, and his full-blooded Osage mother receives oil inheritance checks from profits earned from pumping oil on Osage land. When the reader first encounters Will, he confesses, “I wasn’t good when the trouble started. Wasn’t particularly bad either, but I had potential” (Latham, 2017, p. 8).
Will’s self-awareness serves as his source of conflict as he navigates his sociocultural context. From the onset of his narrative, Will feels pressure from the white community to adhere to cultural expectations, which is evident in the action that begins his narrative. Will and his best friend Clete are inside the Two-Knock, a speakeasy, when Will’s crush, Addie, enters with a young African American man, Clarence Banks. Feeling threatened, Will confronts Clarence to “protect” Addie’s reputation. As one might suspect, tensions escalate, and Clarence accidentally pushes Will to the ground, injuring Will’s arm, while defending himself.
This act of an African American “assaulting” a white boy, as stated by Clete, leads to Tulsa’s Ku Klux Klan getting involved when the police will not. Thus, Latham creates the background necessary for helping young readers understand some of the violent acts and racist beliefs leading to the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Will’s narrative leading up to the beginning of the riot also centers on his character’s quest to understand his own beliefs in the midst of his community. He befriends an African American brother and sister, Joseph and Ruby, and he works to protect them against Vernon Fish, local businessman, who is a member of the Klan and initiator of the riot.
Will’s self-awareness serves as his source of conflict as he navigates his sociocultural context. From the onset of his narrative, Will feels pressure from the white community to adhere to cultural expectations, which is evident in the action that begins his narrative. Will and his best friend Clete are inside the Two-Knock, a speakeasy, when Will’s crush, Addie, enters with a young African American man, Clarence Banks. Feeling threatened, Will confronts Clarence to “protect” Addie’s reputation. As one might suspect, tensions escalate, and Clarence accidentally pushes Will to the ground, injuring Will’s arm, while defending himself.
This act of an African American “assaulting” a white boy, as stated by Clete, leads to Tulsa’s Ku Klux Klan getting involved when the police will not. Thus, Latham creates the background necessary for helping young readers understand some of the violent acts and racist beliefs leading to the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Will’s narrative leading up to the beginning of the riot also centers on his character’s quest to understand his own beliefs in the midst of his community. He befriends an African American brother and sister, Joseph and Ruby, and he works to protect them against Vernon Fish, local businessman, who is a member of the Klan and initiator of the riot.
The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, as historically documented and reimagined in Dreamland Burning, began as many historical acts of violence did during this time and still continue to begin today: with the presumed guilt of a person of color. A 19-year-old African American boy, Dick Rowland, was charged with allegedly assaulting a 14-year-old white girl, Sarah Page, in the elevator of a downtown building. After news of the alleged event spread throughout Tulsa, whites’ anger reached its pinnacle when The Tulsa Tribune printed an article making the response required very clear: “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in an Elevator.”
The white community heeded this charge and sought to lynch Rowland, who had been arrested for the alleged assault and held at the court house, but when the mob arrived there and it was clear the police would not turn him over, the mob turned even more angry. After an altercation with some African Americans who had arrived to bear witness to these events, the mob’s attention then focused on the Greenwood District in Tulsa.
The Greenwood District was home to one of the nation’s most prosperous and successful African American communities, which earned it the name “Black Wall Street.” The mob invaded the Greenwood District and began looting and burning homes, churches, a hospital, a school, and businesses; after 16 hours, the Greenwood District was in absolute ruin. Approximately 8,000 people lost everything, and as Latham documents in her “Author’s Note,” historians believe around 300 people died during the riot by being beaten, lynched, or burned.
The white community heeded this charge and sought to lynch Rowland, who had been arrested for the alleged assault and held at the court house, but when the mob arrived there and it was clear the police would not turn him over, the mob turned even more angry. After an altercation with some African Americans who had arrived to bear witness to these events, the mob’s attention then focused on the Greenwood District in Tulsa.
The Greenwood District was home to one of the nation’s most prosperous and successful African American communities, which earned it the name “Black Wall Street.” The mob invaded the Greenwood District and began looting and burning homes, churches, a hospital, a school, and businesses; after 16 hours, the Greenwood District was in absolute ruin. Approximately 8,000 people lost everything, and as Latham documents in her “Author’s Note,” historians believe around 300 people died during the riot by being beaten, lynched, or burned.
For anyone passing through Tulsa, a stop at the Greenwood Cultural Center is an absolute must. It offers a documented account of the riot as presented in the newspapers of the time, contemporary artwork, historical photographs, and narrative accounts from those who survived. The artwork and photographs are particularly important as they communicate the utter lengths the white mob went to destroy a community through exercising their own racism. Several photographs in particular portray Greenwood before and after the riot. The loss is undeniable. Outside the center, visitors can also view a memorial dedicated to the victims.
As a piece of historical YA fiction, Dreamland Burning would be an excellent choice to include on any YA reading list. The alternating narratives blend the historical genre with a mystery. Every detail Rowan uncovers leads to questions for the reader that William’s subsequent chapter then offers pieces of the puzzle the reader is putting together. By the end of the text, readers may still be trying to determine who that skeleton in Rowan’s “back house” is, which makes this book a real page turner. However, what my students and I find so intriguing about the text is the way in which Latham is able to create moments of personal reflection as Rowan and William experience moments forcing them to evaluate their own developing senses of identity. Most pointedly, Rowan’s mother articulates why understanding our nation’s attempt to keep historical events like Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 buried in the past is so critical to navigating our present:
The lives that ended that night mattered. It was a mistake for this city to try to forget, and it’s an even bigger one to pretend everything’s fine now. Black men and women are dying today for the same reasons they did in 1921. And we have to call that out, Rowan. Every single time (Latham, 2017, p. 191).
References
Latham, J. (2017). Dreamland burning. New York: Little Brown.
Reynolds, J., & Kiely, B. (2015). All American boys. New York: Atheneum.
Stone, N. (2017). Dear Martin. New York: Crown Books.
Thomas, A. (2017). The hate u give. New York: Harper Collins.
Dr.Ashley D. Black is an Assistant Professor of English Education at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO.
Until next week.
Latham, J. (2017). Dreamland burning. New York: Little Brown.
Reynolds, J., & Kiely, B. (2015). All American boys. New York: Atheneum.
Stone, N. (2017). Dear Martin. New York: Crown Books.
Thomas, A. (2017). The hate u give. New York: Harper Collins.
Dr.Ashley D. Black is an Assistant Professor of English Education at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO.
Until next week.
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