You are watching tv on cspan2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Book tv, television for serious readers. Good evening, welcome to covered books. Its my honor to introduce to you jim jenkins who was an editor, editorial writer and columnist on the editorial page 431 years. He will introduce our special guest, help me welcome jim jenkins. [applause] in 1973, i saw him first across a loud profane my filthy newsroom in downtown raleigh. Right out of school, i was still in school. I looked across and set to someone, whos that . Thats david. Hes going to be the new star here. He had long dark hair over his shoulders, thick jet black mustache. As a long time ago. [laughter] david is a grad of the Journalism School and a member now of the journalist of hall of fame. In raleigh, he became famous very quickly in the newsroom when a new young editor came in and sent out a memo to the staff saying each order, submit to the editor every morning and itinerary for his plans for the day. David, even then, impossible to tame, sat down at the typewriter, its a legendary story. He said what i will do today by david. 10 15 a. M. , tried to sneak in a little late. 10 40 a. M. , get a sudden drop. 11 00 a. M. , Start Talking about where to go to lunch. Hes writing all this down. We went to the diner yesterday but the special went over 4 so today we may go somewhere else. All written down. Young editor goes graded. Crazy. The very severe serious editor from the new york times, the memo, we cant have this kind of insubordination. He said sit down. He got a bite, well, ive got to be honest with you. Hes one of the best young reporters ive ever seen, he may be the best ive ever seen. And i didnt work for the new york times. If we have to fire him, but weve got to fire you . [laughter] better start thinking. He was in raleigh five years and then quickly the latter, this is a correspondent which he spent a contract correspondent for the new york times. He has been under fire, hes been under water, it has been quite a career. The late jimmy said royko of the chicago paper when they were doing some of his columns, they were trying to get flurry in everything, he said he is the best, isnt he . Thats all he said. Thats what they say about david. [applause] thank you for the story. Where those true . All right. Thank everybody for coming out tonight, i really appreciate your interest in the book. Ive asked to asked about the impeachment hearing. Well go and turn on the tv and watch the impeachment. [laughter] i like to start off by asking people how many of you were aware of the massacre before you came across this book . All right, so most of you. I have to admit, i hadnt heard about this until about 20 years ago. I went to high school and college in North Carolina. Never heard about it. Never heard about it in history class about any history teacher. Many years ago, i was assigned this review. I have no idea who morrison was, i knew he was a governor and thats all i knew. Years later, i find out hes one of the leading speakers of the White Supremacy campaign in 1898. When i was in school, i went to king stadium. I didnt know who came in and didnt care. Years later, as im researching this book, it turns out hes campaigning my book as well. Crews that went through town, searching out back. I went to the news there, the founding publisher was daniels, who was revered, there were tributes around the newsroom. To him. Nobody mentioned he was the leader of the campaign. I had no idea until i started researching this book. I found out recently the story at chapel hill were in the student store. I have no idea. Thirty buildings on the campus, they are named after white supremacist, many of them who were active in the White Supremacy movement in 1898. I bring all this up just to make the point that this book isnt really ancient history. Its right now. The legacy of this book is all over the state, all over chapel hill. Some people who managed to read the book, asked her impressions and they usually have two questions. First, how did i not know about this . The second is, how could this happen in the United States of america . The only thing i can tell is that this is a foregone chapter of American History, not just North Carolina history American History i was covered up or mischaracterized for more than a century. Most of you know the basic sto story, ill go through it quickly. 1898, white supremacist, the multiracial government in flemington. Up to 60 black men and wounded dozens more. The black daily newspaper and the affected city leaders at gun. Appointed the mob leaders as mayor, police chief, sheriff and blackandwhite political leaders, they marched them with militiamen at gun. To the train station, they put them on the train and said if you ever come back to wilmington, well shoot you on site, not one of them ever came back. You can imagine during this period when it must have been like for the black families lived in flemington. The men were being shot down on the street and gunmen were running through the streets, terrorizing people and hundreds of them fled into the swamps and cemeteries outside the city, trying to hide. This was in november, you can imagine it was cold and the first day they were there, it was raining. There were some reports that babies died from exposure. Terrible conditions and it took them to fights and three days before they felt safe enough to return. The days and weeks following, 2100 black people fled the city and never came back. It was hard to believe that no one was ever punished. Nor prosecuted much less convicted for the murders. Its also hard to believe that they announced it all ahead of time. They said they would overthrow the rule by the ballot or both. They said they were going to do it and they did it. The whole country watched. Because they announced it, while before, this was in the spring and fall of 1898, all the major newspapers since their white reporters to correct. The washington post, philadelphia inquirer, baltimo baltimore, washington, charlotte and atlanta and of course the news and observer, they were all fair. These reporters from out of town would arrive at the train station and they would meet them there and handout cigars, give them flickr and they would embed them with the gunmen going around patrolling the citys. These reporters would go out with them, never interviewed a black person as far as i could talk but they would go out and swallow the stories these white supremacist were telling them, there was going to be right, boxer incapable of governing, they didnt have a right to vote in this was reflected in these newspapers and the stories they sent back. The nation got this whole story that was basically the talking points of the white supremacist to the white press. For a century, this was called race, it was a racial massacre. It was a planned murder strict. In our nations history, in the 19th and earliest centuries, almost all of these were spontaneous outbursts of white rage. Many cases, it involved real or supposed contact between a black man and a white woman. The only tuesday unique was different, premeditated, carefully orchestrated racial evolution. Planned well in advance. It was by far the most successful and permanent of an elected government in history. Theres never been anything like it. I think it was an outlier in the late 19th century, a rarity in the south. It was a majority of blacks, 56 box. Very few big cities in the south have a black majority but more important, multiracial government, blacks were in position of authority. The 26 Police Officers were black, three of the ten were also black. Black warriors, merchants and there was the daily black newspaper. 1898, the publication, the freest town for a negro in the country. They were not going to let it stand. They had a goal, the vertical was to overthrow the government but that was just their first goal. It was a big article in a major goal to deny black people the right to vote the right to hold Public Office forever. By those standards, it was an incredibly successful crew. 1896, there were 126,000 registered black voters in North Carolina. 126,000. 1906, 20 years later, 6100. It went downhill from there. Black citizens in North Carolina did not vote in significant numbers for 70 more years. Until after the Voting Rights act of 1965. The black majority, white supremacist stronghold almost overnight. 1828, warmington was 56 black. Anybody have a guess as to what it might be today . Wow, somebody knows. 18 . 1898, america had one black congressman. Joined henry white. He represented a district in the southeastern part of the state adjacent to wilmington. He was harassed, he and his family were harassed and run out of office by white supremacists. He said in 1900, is not going to run for reelection. Hes leaving for state and his words were, i cannot live in North Carolina and be treated as a man. After he left office in 1900, no black citizen in North Carolina served congress until 1992. Cigna government intrusion of the time. But that made them in the summer of 1988, they were prominent and was really seen as too closely with the back of black officials. They remember and a pistol on them. On the card it said, the white republicans, the sons of the white race and they said, that they were coming and they would pay and putting black office and they would be managed. And this turned out, the work. The white mayor and white federal commissioner they were marched at gunpoint and forth trying and said to come back will kill you. One of them never came back. The main weapon or one of the main weapons for the white supremacist campaign let he played an observer about blacks. And for loot the nearly 25 percent who were illiterate, curtains. I like to read a brief passage in the book. More than a century before the attacks attacked social media, they were through funny or misleading newspaper stories and disinformation campaign. The most sensational stories focused on the black beast race. Daniels understood implicitly white southern males. They occupied the town, the blackman were elevated. A black man who held Public Office by their logic, would become a rival to the white women. And on the front page outrageous, all that was required was contact with the white woman in black men. With each cartoon in each provocative article, the day was coming in the observer when a white man will take the law in our own hands and organize force make the negros behave themselves. A race war was inevitable. They were coming between the racist. , and in such clashes, the white race would often have their own fake news. The other Media Campaign with the also have their own militia. They were called redshirts. And there basically a group of sons or relatives of confederate veterans. They were basically white supremacist. Their job was to write out at night, drag out blackman, beat them in with them and tell them that they would be killed if they dared to vote on election day. And this in november 1898, the blackman was 20 at the polling station and they continued to beat them. By doing so, the crushed the black man that day and stole the election. In the redshirts, the first was the williams infantry. These were basically they were reporting to the governor in raleigh but in fact, they went to the crew leaders. That summer in the spanish war, they were to doubt. This was wilmingtons lie. They were told they were backing willington, and they had planned it for two days. And then during the riots, and on the day of the coup, they were in federal service, they were federal soldiers. They wouldnt be coming back for a week or two. They murdered american citizens inputting data black riot. Black soldiers also were in segregated units. Wightman made sure that they were in a Training Camp in georgia. So that left the black community defenseless. He had all of these young men trained soldiers and weapons. They were defenders for the black community. In one of the things that was the black publisher and as a journalist, i thought he was a fascinating character who is a courageous man. Just an amazing character. He demanded civil rights with blacks. And to live up to its promises with the black citizens. In august of 1898, he wrote an editorial about race. He wrote the many blackman were supposedly ripping white women. He also pointed out that whites raped black women. Within his thoughts, to see a white woman in georgia, god used with that one trump. Thousand times. I would like to read briefly now, ill read a short selection from this is very long. Every negro lunch is called a big burly roots. When in fact, wightman for the fathers, were not black and burly the work sufficiently attracted to white girls of culture. And its very well known to all. More than an excuse for them to intimidate rather than help people. Until human that for a black man to be intimate with the white woman then for him white man to be intimate with a colored woman. What a hypocrite. You cry a lot in the virtue of your women. And you seek to destroy the morality of ours. You can tell what it would take for a black man to write Something Like that. At that time and people often ask me hi researched it. Common journalist as jim mentioned, im used to interviewing people about events that they have been experience. Obviously this case, there are no witnesses love from 1998. So everything thats in this book, are from documents. I have piles and piles and piles of paper in my office. I spent a lot of time in libraries, in Southern Historical collection which are amazing. And i really recommend that to go. The whites were proud of their accomplishments. They put it in memoirs and diaries and newspaper columns. There were some very rich and detailed rhetoric. They left behind or fewer information because they were running for their lives. Some people are finding things now. What i was able to do thankfully, there were black newspapers around the country, you could obviously not send black reporters to willing when ten. They wouldve been probably killed around town. But after the coup when all of these black families mostly in the eastern seaboard, they would interview them and this was in very rich and detailed stories about what is happened. In addition they were black lawyers who left very interesting memoirs. And this was an incredible detail. Alex malleys wife who wrote these beautiful serious letters to her sons in the 1950s. Some of them in the book. Through all of this i was able to balance the whites narrative with the black narratives. What i tried to do also was an willington as a journalist, and i also tried to use the novels, characters and dialogues to create built environment entirely from documents. This not a historical fiction book. This is a nonfiction book. Everything in this book comes from the work of journalism and stop fake news to use the popular term of the day. And before closing, when read two short passages from the book. First electoral speech given to the troops by col. Alfred. Hes a former congressman in a newspaper editor of confederate general who led them off. And again this is the night of the election when you give a speech to the hall of bullington. You must do your duty. The city, county and state shall have domination once and for all. You have the courage, youre right, you are the sons of noble ancestry. Youre armed and prepared and you will do your duty. Go to the polls tomorrow and if you fight and they grow out running, tell him to leave the pole. And if he refuses, kill him. Him down. Never show the renters responded, this about blackman was a very fascinating character. He was encouraging blacks to register to vote. On the day the right, three white men persuaded him to go with them doortodoor in a black neighborhood to plead with brought black residents. In many great public show for blocks about. Early in the stay, he concluded that further resistance would only get him killed. It going from house to house accompanied by a group. At one point a group of black men held infant hostage. He surprised them and he told blackman to release their captives. After a series of negotiations the three, escorted them to a white gunman. Instead, several wightman taken for lynching. They were plunged into the mob. On behalf of the white hostages, went to the campaign. Just before the dark, escorted them to the city jail. A short time later the infantry soldiers taken from jail in march to make the flight to the boat where he was placed just before the train departed, they made the situation even more dire. He was told they would be killed onsite if he ever returned. Then it gang of redshirts just rolled out of the depot, after they departed they left him alone for the hunters. A few hours later his body filled with bullets was discovered in the woods. On williamsons northern outskirts. The moving train stop by the renters. It was more likely that he was executed on board. Finally you think this major event and in American History wouldve been mentioned in the North Carolina information. When in fact it was barely mentioned. It was, it was portrayed a black race right and Big Government effort. As a Public School textbook in 1933. Quote there were many negro people fitted for the task. Heres some textbook. The massive negroes, to vote better than scalawags, the worst crimes were not punished. When the whites in the south were no longer south. The number of blacks were part of the riot and it was over at wilmington government. And finally, from 1936 about the kkk. This was in a public textbook the children read. Into this terrible condition, white people at a club name the ku klux klan. [laughter]. Members of the best, sorry, members dennis dressed as ghosts, they were acting distantly. There were large back writing back into the lives of the people. They would frighten negroes into living better lives. And then a negro or white you are done wrong, the clan would visit these men and let them know the wrongs they have done. Crime became less and less. Again Public School textbooks. 1940. You can see how the white mythology lived the wilmingtons lie for so long. I truly believe we have to confront the ugliest to understand the roots of racism. Today politicians are using social media to demonize people. Especially with white nationalists on the ri