First published 1998
North Carolina's Democratic Party orchestrates a violent campaign to destroy black political power and dismantle an interracial coalition that threatens white conservative control. White supremacists deploy fraud, intimidation, and bloodshed to seize government offices and strip African Americans of voting rights. The campaign reaches its climax in Wilmington, where white mobs murder black residents and force elected officials to flee the city. Published to mark the centennial of these events, this collection brings together leading scholars to examine how white conservatives used systematic violence to reverse decades of African American political gains. The contributors analyze the methods, motivations, and lasting consequences of what they argue was a coordinated assault on democratic governance itself. Their work honors the victims of the violence while providing historical context for understanding how white supremacy operated in the post-Reconstruction South.
Genres: history, 20th-century, african-american, political-science, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, historical-fiction
Setting: North Carolina, Wilmington
Period: Post-Reconstruction
320 pages · Paperback · The University of North Carolina Press
Content warnings: racism, violence