The SHOCKING story of how white supremacists ‘Stole a City’

In 1898, Wilmington, North Carolina was a bastion of Black success following the end of the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era. Black cultural life flourished, while a thriving Black middle class brimmed with lawyers, educators, and elected officials. The city became a symbol of Black hope, only for all of it to come to a violent end after a group of white supremacists issued a “White Declaration of Independence,” and white men gunned down scores of Black men, chasing their families into hiding. Staff writer at The New Yorker, Lauren Collins tells the history of the white supremacist massacre and what is believed to be the only successful coup d’etat in this country in her new book, “They Stole a City: Wilmington’s White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live with Its Legacy.” Lauren joins Morning Joe to discuss the long-term effects of the massacre and how it has been engrained in our present politics.

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