Wilmington's Lie - The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy
Author(s): David Zucchino
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From Pulitzer Prize winner David Zucchino comes a searing account of the Wilmington massacre and coup of 1898, a rare violent overthrow of an elected government within the United States. By 1898, Wilmington, North Carolina, was a shining example of a mixed-race community. But across the South, white supremacist Democrats were working to reverse the advances made by black citizens. In North Carolina they devised a coordinated campaign of intimidation and violence that culminated in Wilmington on November 10, 1898, when 2,000 heavily armed white nightriders swarmed through the city, forcing city officials and leading black citizens to flee at gunpoint, terrorizing women and children, and shooting at least sixty black men dead in the streets. This brutal insurrection halted gains made by blacks in Wilmington and restored racism as official government policy, cementing white rule for another seventy years. Wilmington's Lie weaves together individual stories of hate and brutality, resulting in a dramatic and definitive account of a forgotten chapter of American history.
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Winner - Pulitzer Prize for Non Fiction 2021
A judicious and riveting new history...The publication of a book like Zucchino's, [is] a sign that, however late and reluctantly, America is becoming conscious of the racial violence that insured white supremacy after Reconstruction."--New Yorker
"Brilliant...Zucchino, a contributing writer for the New York Times, does not overwrite the scenes. His moral judgement stands at a distance. He simply describes what happened and the lies told to justify it all...The details contained in the last part of the book are heart-wrenching. With economy and a cinematic touch, Zucchino recounts the brutal assault on black Wilmington."--New York Times
"In Wilmington's Lie, David Zucchino, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has covered conflicts around the world, punctures the myths surrounding the insurrection and provides a dynamic and detailed account of the lives of perpetrators and victims...Deeply researched and profoundly relevant, Wilmington's Lie explains how [the coup] happened and suggests how much work remains to be done to come to terms with what took place."--Washington Post
David Zucchino is a contributing writer for The New York Times. He has covered wars and civil conflicts in more than three dozen countries. Zucchino was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his dispatches from apartheid South Africa and is a four-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for his reporting from Iraq, Lebanon, Africa, and inner-city Philadelphia. He is the author of Thunder Run and Myth of the Welfare Queen.
General Fields
- :
- : Grove Press
- : Grove Press
- : 01 December 2020
- : books
Special Fields
- : David Zucchino
- : Paperback
- : English
- : 448
