Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy

By the 1890s, Wilmington was North Carolina’s largest city and a shining example of a mixed-race community with a burgeoning African American middle class. In 1898, North Carolina’s white supremacist Democrats were plotting to take back the state legislature in November “by the ballot or bullet or both.” In Wilmington’s Lie, PulitzerPrize-winning journalist, David Zucchino tells the story of intimidation and violence, stuffed ballot boxes, and thousands of armed men who killed at least 60 black men in the streets. The rioters forced city officials to resign at gunpoint and replaced them with mob leaders.This brutal insurrection is a rare instance of a violent overthrow of an elected government in the U.S. It halted gains made by blacks and restored racism as official government policy. A book signing follows the program.