Dreamland Burning

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What were Jim Crow laws? What were their origins? When did Jim Crow laws end?

Teaching Suggestion: The setting of the novel is in Tulsa, both in the present and in 1921 during the Tulsa Race Riot; the portion of the novel set in 1921 takes place in a southern state where Jim Crow laws were in effect. With sensitivity to racial identity, consider reading the articles below to help students understand the historical context of the novel. Students may benefit from additional time for investigation of the prompt’s topics with other scholarly resources as well.

• This article describes the beginning and end of Jim Crow laws in southern states.
• This 5-minute video describes how Jim Crow laws got their name.

2. What was the Tulsa Race Massacre? What was Black Wall Street? What is a news blackout?

Teaching Suggestion: With sensitivity to racial identity, consider reading the two articles below, which describe the Tulsa Race Massacre and Black Wall Street. If the ideas are new to them, students may benefit from additional time to investigate the prompt’s topics with scholarly resources they discover independently.