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In light of @caleb_crain& #39;s excellent @NewYorker piece on the 1898 Wilmington coup & massacre, wanted to say a few things about that event & my favorite American novel (Charles Chesnutt& #39;s Marrow of Tradition). https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/27/what-a-white-supremacist-coup-looks-like">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/...
First, as I mentioned a bit ago, @atrubek& #39;s Belt Publishing has a great recent reissue of Chesnutt& #39;s novel, with an intro by Wiley Cash! Only $8 at the moment, so support indie publishing & get your hands on the greatest American novel for 8 bucks. https://beltpublishing.com/products/the-marrow-of-tradition">https://beltpublishing.com/products/...
Second, if you want to learn more about Wilmington (before, during, & after 1898), you can& #39;t do better than @MegMulrooney& #39;s book: https://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813054926">https://upf.com/book.asp...
For me, the most vital primary source from the Wilmington massacre is this stunning letter to President McKinley from an anonymous African American woman in the city:
https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/letter-african-american">https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/le...
https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/letter-african-american">https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/le...
The more I& #39;ve learned about the countless massacres between New Orleans in 1866 and (at least) Detroit in 1943, the more Wilmington has come to seem all too typical of a century of post-Civil War racial terrorism.
https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2018/09/september-13-2018-massacrestudying.html">https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2018/09/s...
https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2018/09/september-13-2018-massacrestudying.html">https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2018/09/s...
Seen in that light, even the Red Summer of 1919 & Tulsa in 1921, horrific as they were, are also just signposts along a long, bloody, very American highway, what we could sum up as the lynching epidemic (since massacres were collective lynchings). https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/06/considering-history-racial-terrorism-and-the-red-summer-of-1919/">https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/06/c...
But as Crain argues, & as many other sources including Chesnutt& #39;s magisterial novel have long made clear, Wilmington does still stand out for the white supremacist coup d& #39;etat that accompanied its racial terrorism. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/wilmington-massacre/536457/">https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/...
So we need to read Chesnutt (& that anonymous letter, & Mulrooney) both for all that it & Wilmington tragically exemplify about American history, & for their shared warning of white supremacy& #39;s ultimate goal: to take & hold power in the most undemocratic ways possible.
I could go on about Wilmington & Marrow, but I& #39;ll leave it at this: if there& #39;s one novel all Americans should read, it gets my vote. & if there& #39;s a moment that opens up the last 150+ yrs of US history better than Wilmington 1898, I haven& #39;t encountered it. https://americanwritersmuseum.org/why-we-should-all-read-charles-chesnutt/">https://americanwritersmuseum.org/why-we-sh...
