UNC Alum David Zucchino Won a Pulitzer Prize for His Book on the 1898 Wilmington Massacre
BY REBECCA SCHNEID JUN. 11, 2021 4:43 P.M.
It’s a failure of our state’s public education system that most North Carolinians will tell you, they never learned about the 1898 Wilmington massacre.
David Zucchino, a contributing writer for The New York Times and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill alumnus, is working to change that, and today, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his efforts.
The Pulitzer organization announced its prize winners this afternoon and Zucchino won in the category of General Non Fiction for his book Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy.
In the book, Zucchino chronicles the port city’s fall from grace as one of the only Black safe havens in the south. In the early 1890s, the city had a prominent Black middle class, Black city council members and other government leaders, and a large Black electorate; all in all, it was a mixed-race, progressive city.
On November 10, 1898, about 2,000 white supremacists stormed Wilmington’s streets, burning down Black-owned businesses and overthrowing the city’s mixed-race government. To this day, the public does not know how many people were killed in the massacre but it could be as many as 300.
Zucchino tells the story of the massacre in the post-Reconstruction South and the rise of the all-white government afterwards. The book is a timely commentary on how the media in Wilmington spread lies to justify the coup and massacre.
OK, Readers all know that I use THIS PHOTO of William Rand Kenan, Sr. with the Colt-branded "Gatling Gun" mounted to far left on this wagon. I FIRST saw this photo in the Cape Fear Museum, and labeled "Capt. Kenan's RAPID-FIRE Brigade":
WHY didn't Mr. Zucchino FULLY credit it in his book??? And while my understanding from Kenan Family Lore, Histories, and informal and formal research I've done over the last twelve years, various places he is credited with simply terrorizing Blacks, to mowing them down indiscriminately -- and he had a BIGGER role than you would know from Wilmington Lies (sic):
It was the SUCCESS of this that led my wealthy Kenan relatives in Chapel Hill, NC to plan the January 6, 2021 Insurrection -- MODELLED on this success: HUGE LIES SPREAD, Ku Klux Klan and NAZI-flag-waving Trump supporters, Christianity DESTROYING Constitutional Government.
My "Dirty Little Secret", is that I have NOT READ but 46 pages of the book -- that when it first came out, and Mayor Saffo, D.A. Ben David, NC Representative Deb Butler and her Drug-Trafficking Partner Jonathan Deputy -- with a lot of street people who sell drugs for them -- were ALL harassing me.
The book's story FELT TOO MUCH like what nearly all of Wilmington's Political, Law Enforcement, and Religious Establishment was doing to me, and I couldn't read it then -- but I'm READY to read it NOW. I've established respected communications with many high up in Government as well as a few internationally-respected Journalists, so they don't dare KILL ME, NOW!!!
I hope.
I'd better sleep on this one, first, and write, tomorrow.
Also, today, I had my annual "Wellness Check", and my lab results, X-ray, etc., all came in MUCH IMPROVED from last year -- which had great results, but now, my doc says they could hardly come in better!!!
So the STRESS of this last 12 months: I had TWO in-hospital operations -- and BOTH times got the BUM'S RUSH (because of COVID), and was released in half the minimum time -- and then there was also the Election, Insurrection, and Wilmington Establishment's CONTINUING attempts to BURY MY STORY, and preferably me, as well.
I have only IMPROVED MY PHYSICAL STRENGTHS -- but my PSYCHOLOGICAL STRENGTH, I'll let my Readers guess at -- LOL!!!
Scott
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