The Filling Station by Vanessa Miller

 

My thoughts

This is a story of historical events that I have not heard much about. I have since finishing it read some of the info that this author left at the end. The links that is. This is a very emotionally charged story. It keeps the reader engaged and wanting to know why throughout. At least it did for me. I wish I could say that this country has come a long way and maybe in some ways it has. But in so many ways it certainly has not. So much hatred and bigotry still seems to run this country. 

This is the story of what happened in 1921 in a town in Oklahoma. What happened to a group of people who were doing nothing to warrant such hostility and hatred. Simply because of the color of their skin. That is a fact. A very sad fact. 

There were many black families living in an area called Greenwood. It was an all black area. All the businesses and homes belonged to these citizens. They were very successful and happy with their lives. But white people didn't like it. They didn't want these black people to be happy and successful. They used an excuse based on a black kid touching a white girl to invade this area and burn them to the ground. To terrorize and hurt these law abiding citizens because they were black and did not deserve to own anything. 

In this story you meet two young women who lived in Greenwood District. Sisters. Best of friends. They lived with their father. Their mother had died and he raised his girls. He taught them to respect people. To work hard. To get an education. Then one night they were attacked. A whole district turned upside down and people left with nothing. All they had worked for gone up in smoke. How can people truly be that cruel? I don't understand and never will. Reading this was heartbreaking but also I believe necessary. It's history. It happened. We don't need things like this to keep happening. 

These people were given very little help to rebuild their community. And they had to work for that. The Red Cross didn't want to help it seems. They did but the cost was the people's dignity.  Not one white man was arrested or reprimanded for this heinous crime. Not one. 

The people in Greenwood District did build back. They worked hard. They excelled again. The story is mostly about these two young women but also what happened in 1921 in the Greenwood District to the black people by white people. Isn't it sad that it happened at all? 

You meet several families and get to know another family. The Threatt family. They helped people out when they came to them. What this family did for Evelyn and Margaret was beyond what they ever expected. They were two young women alone when they happened upon the Threatt Filling Station. What a perfect name for this book.... 

Read this one. It's so worth it. It's history that you may not have heard about. It's sad and uplifting both. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #ThomasNelsonFiction, for this ARC. 

About

"The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre is, shockingly, little more than a footnote in history . . . Miller's book, thankfully, reverses that egregious oversight . . . we viscerally learn how this vibrant Black community fought devastation with resilience, faith, and grit." --Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Two sisters. One unassuming haven. Endless opportunities for grace.

Sisters Margaret and Evelyn Justice have grown up in the prosperous Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma--also known as Black Wall Street. In Greenwood, the Justice sisters had it all--movie theaters and entertainment venues, beauty shops and clothing stores, high-profile businesses like law offices, medical clinics, and banks. While Evelyn aspires to head off to the East Coast to study fashion design, recent college grad Margaret plans to settle in Greenwood, teaching at the local high school and eventually raising a family.

Then the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre upends everything they know and brings them unspeakable loss. Left with nothing but each other, the sisters flee along what would eventually become iconic Route 66 and stumble upon the Threatt Filling Station, a safe haven and the only place where they can find a shred of hope in oppressive Jim Crow America. At the filling station, they are able to process their pain, fill up their souls, and find strength as they wrestle with a faith in God that has left them feeling abandoned.

But they eventually realize that they can't hide out at the filling station when Greenwood needs to be rebuilt. The search for their father and their former life may not give them easy answers, but it can propel them--and their community--to a place where their voices are stronger . . . strong enough to build a future that honors the legacy of those who were lost.