News from the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (ERUUF)

ERUUF to Host Discussion, Book Signing with Author, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist David Zucchino

For Release: Immediate        

DURHAM, NC– (January 23, 2020) – Meet the Author: David Zucchino, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, who will discuss his new book, Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. This little-known historical event massacred at least 60 black men and led to the disenfranchisement of black voters in North Carolina for the next 60 years.     

The discussion will take place at the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (4907 Garrett Rd., Durham, NC) on Sunday, February 9, 2020, 1:00 pm. Book signing to follow.

Also, in attendance will be Dr. Henry C. McKoy, Jr., Economic Chairperson for the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, current Director of Entrepreneurship at NCCU, and faculty at the Flagler School of Business at UNC Chapel Hill, who will introduce Zucchino.

About the Book

Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, published January 7, 2020, has been named an “Amazon Best Book” of January 2020.

“Usually, when we read history, we at least have a cursory knowledge of the subject at hand. Sometimes, however, a book comes along that just surprises. How did we not know about this before? we ask ourselves. Wilmington’s Lie is such a book. After the Civil War, Wilmington, North Carolina prospered. It was the state’s largest city, with a busy port and a mixed-race community that featured a burgeoning black middle class. But in 1898, a group of white supremacists decided to do something to turn back the page. David Zucchino’s well-researched book delivers an account of one of the few times a group of people has violently overthrown the government in this country. Although the violence that swept over Wilmington’s black community was later covered up as “a race riot,” this was a blatant act of racism, a brutal stab for power. We did not have to wait long for the first great history book of the new decade.” —Chris Schluep, Amazon Review

The book has also garnered positive reviews from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other notable publications.

“Sometimes history’s greatest waves leave their most vivid traces on the most local of events. In ‘Wilmington’s Lie,’ David Zucchino offers a gripping account of one of the most disturbing, though virtually unknown, political events in American history. He opens with a terse verbal jolt: ‘The killers came by streetcar.’ From this ominous beginning, the ruthless 1898 massacre of blacks in Wilmington, N.C., by the members of a white-supremacist conspiracy roars to its tragic conclusion. It is a grim but fascinating story, and an instructive one.”—Fergus M. Bordewich, The Wall Street Journal

“The first two parts of the book move in a deliberate fashion. Zucchino…does not overwrite the scenes. His moral judgment 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.” .”—Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., The New York Times

“A searing and still-relevant tale of racial injustice at the turn of the 20th century . . . [C]lear and appropriately outraged . . . A book that does history a service by uncovering a shameful episode, one that resonates strongly today.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Wilmington’s Lie is riveting and meticulously reported and powerfully written. It is also scalding and revelatory. As David Zucchino shows with relentless drama, the end of the Civil War was not the end of slavery but the beginning of a period more terrifying, the unchecked rise of white supremacy that culminated in a day of unparalleled blood in a North Carolina coastal town. It is a forgotten chapter in American history. Zucchino has now made it an unforgettable one.”—Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights

“David Zucchino is one of the finest foreign correspondents I have ever worked with in 40 years of journalism. Now imagine you take someone with David’s reporting skills and transport him back in history to 1898 and Wilmington, North Carolina. And you tell him to tell us the story of the only violent overthrow of an elected government in American history. It was perpetrated by white supremacists seeking to reverse the remarkable advances in racial pluralism in Wilmington of that day—a positive example that was primed to spread throughout the state, and beyond. What you end up with is a gripping, cannot-put-down book that is both history and a distant mirror on just how much can go wrong in this great country of ours when populist politicians play the race card without restraint.”—Thomas Friedman

“A staggeringly great book, both thrilling and tragic, shining light on a dark passage of American history.”—Tim Weiner, National Book Award–winning author of Legacy of Ashes

About the Author

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.

About Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

Established in 1966 and now with 735 members, ERUUF (www.eruuf.org) presents services at 4907 Garrett Rd., Durham, NC, 27707 at 9:00 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. Sundays.  All are welcome.