They Stole a City, Wilmington’s White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live with Its Legacy by Lauren Collins is another chapter in American history where gains by Blacks were met with a violent backlash. After reconstruction, Wilmington, North Carolina, was home to a thriving Black middle class of doctors, lawyers, business owners, skilled tradesmen and other professionals living and working alongside white residents. 
Black citizens held public office and significant political power.
But in 1898, white supremacists determined to destroy that progress issued what became known as the “White Declaration of Independence.” It declared, “We…will no longer be ruled, and will never again be ruled, by men of African origin.” What followed was the violent overthrow of Wilmington’s elected government, the killing of Black residents, the destruction of Black businesses, and the forced removal of Black leaders.
The rest is one of the darkest—and for decades, deliberately omitted chapters in American history, alongside Rosewood and others. The book follows that thread of the impact of these events to modern Wilmington, the heirs of the families involved, and the broader story of what’s happening in American politics today.
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