There are only so many books that come along that leave you wondering, “How on Earth did I never hear about this event before?” The Stole a City by Lauren Collins is the story of the 1898 Wilmington, N.C. race massacre. You know, the one where a bunch of white supremacists killed a bunch of people (we still don’t know how many), expelled the legitimately elected government, and took over. The country shrugged. A coup was conducted post-Civil War, and seemingly no one cared.
Collins tells the story of four families intimately involved in the massacre. She follows them from right before the massacre through today. Along the way, Collins looks at the social structure of Wilmington and how it went from a shining example of race power-sharing to a KKK member’s dream.
I have a not insignificant criticism for Collins’ narrative, but it is way more important to cover the great parts first. The beginning 90% of the book is absolutely riveting. Collins makes her characters so memorable that she scarcely needs to remind the reader who is who. Her choices on where to focus the story are exceptional. This is a deeply researched book which is heavy at times but never feels like a slog. I was reaching the final section of chapters and thought this book was near perfection.
Unfortunately, Collins does not stick the landing, but not fatally. Earlier in the book, she makes word choices which can be a bit charged. It certainly doesn’t bother me when talking about murdering racists. However, when she gets to contemporary times, her word choices start to pull the reader out of the narrative into today’s morass of partisan politics. The most egregious choice is to have a chapter focused entirely on the January 6th riot in Washington, D.C. Every single chapter before and after has direct ties to Wilmington and its people. This is the only one that does not. While I can see the tenuous connection to today’s racism, it felt like a reach and more about the author wanting to discuss it rather than a solid storytelling choice. There are other lines here and there which further distract from the main thesis in this manner, but they are not numerous.
For those who read my reviews, I am loathe to deal with contemporary politics when not necessary. That said, even if my criticism above makes you wary, I still urge you to read this book. While Collins’ choices at the end of this book made me scratch my head, everything else around it is so exceptional that I can’t help but highly recommend it. What happened in 1898 is too important to continue to be overlooked, and Collins wrote a book that demands to be read.
(This book was provided as an advanced reader copy by Penguin Press.)
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