Wilmington's Lie

Must read about an underreported murderous episode in the NC of 1898. Must read for Black History and should be required reading for all HS/college American History courses. Written like a novel with each meticulously researched fact harder to believe than the prior one.

Wilmington’s Lie, winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, documents one of the darkest episodes in North Carolina’s history – the violent overthrow of an elected government in the Black-majority city of Wilmington. It was a massacre that left at least 60 Black men dead. I lived in North Carolina for decades before I heard about this history. And I’m hardly alone. Until recently, this coup had been described as a “race riot” and largely omitted from textbooks, while its White supremacist organizers had been revered as great North Carolinians. If you want to understand what people mean… show more.