Book Review

Canada and the United States

Given the horrific history of the time, it is nearly impossible to pinpoint the nadir of race relations in the post-Reconstruction South, but certainly the Wilmington racial massacre of 1898 comes as close as any single event to marking this moment. Part of a white supremacy crusade that swept through the American South at the turn of the century, the significance of the violence in Wilmington reached far beyond the borders of North Carolina. The white attack on African-American political power in Wilmington stemmed from the same impulse that led American military forces to crush the Filipino insurrection following the war with Spain. The white response to people of color taking control of their political destiny in both instances was a ruthless assault on democracy.

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Because what happened in Wilmington cuts so sharply against the grain of how most Americans think about their past, there is little to commemorate the African Americans who were killed and driven out by the white revolt. With the centennial of the race riot in 1998, however, blacks and whites joined in a citywide campaign to recall Wilmington's tragic past and to move toward racial reconciliation. David S. Cecelski and Timothy B. Tyson contribute to this essential venture in what Toni Morrison, in Beloved (1987), has called "rememory," bringing together an impressive lineup of historians to examine the Wilmington riot and its aftermath. Seeking to "avoid the temptations of narrow scholarly debate" (p. xiii), Cecelski and Tyson set out to produce a collection of essays that addresses a larger audience. Although working within a genre not known for its wide appeal, Cecelski and Tyson are surprisingly successful in achieving their goal, and they should be praised for the effort. All too few academic historians these days are willing to discuss the larger issues raised by their work and to adopt a more accessible language so that non-scholars do not feel intimidated by or excluded from this conversation. It is hard to imagine a better topic for such a dialogue than with the history of racial violence in the United States and its impact on race relations today.

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