Story and Audio by Anna Grace Freebersyser
Over the last few years, growing racial tensions and the visible resurgence of white supremacy in the U.S. has made America’s past a front-page story. Reporter Anna Grace Freebersyser explores how journalists have been telling that story all along.
Earlier this year, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Zucchino joined the growing ranks of journalists looking to the past to understand the present.
His book, Wilmington’s Lie, tells the largely unknown story of the 1898 white supremacist overthrow of the city government in Wilmington, North Carolina–a government which included black elected officials.
When Zucchino, a reporter for the New York Times, learned about this lesser known piece of history, he knew it was a story that needed to be told. He relied on historians for knowing where to go. They led him to original documents that allowed him to tell the story to a new audience.
ZUCCHINO: IT WAS MOSTLY THROUGH VERY PERSONAL FORMS OF COMMUNICATIONS LIKE LETTERS, DIARIES, NEWSPAPER EDITORIALS, PEOPLE’S MEMOIRS, THERE WERE LOTS OF MEMOIRS. SO PEOPLE RECORDED THEIR EXPERIENCES, I FELT ALMOST WHEN I WAS READING THESE MEMOIRS AND LETTERS LIKE I WAS INTERVIEWING PEOPLE. AND WHAT I TRIED TO DO WAS PRETEND I WAS A JOURNALIST IN 1898 INSTEAD OF INTERVIEWING PEOPLE READING THEIR REALLY MOST HEARTFELT THOUGHTS, PARTICULARLY IN SOME OF THESE LETTERS AND DIARIES, THAT WAS REALLY USEFUL IN SORT OF BUILDING THE STORY FROM THE GROUND UP AND TELLING IT IN A HUMAN WAY THROUGH THE EXPERIENCES OF HUMAN BEINGS WHO WENT THROUGH THIS, BOTH BLACK AND WHITE.
On the surface, history may seem like a departure for a journalist who’s spent over 30 years as a foreign correspondent. But in telling the story of the only successful coup d’etat in history of the United States, one of the primary sources he turned to in order to reanimate the past was the voice of other journalists: newspaper men. Specifically the black press of 1898.
ZUCCHINO: WHAT WAS REALLY INCREDIBLY USEFUL FOR ME AT THE TIME WAS THE BLACK PRESS, EVEN THOUGH THEY COULD NOT SEND BLACK REPORTERS TO WILMINGTON–THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN KILLED OR LYNCHED. WHEN BLACK FAMILIES FLED WILMINGTON THEY WOULD GO TO TOWNS THAT HAD BLACK NEWSPAPERS, AND THEY WOULD INTERVIEW THEM AND GET FRESH–I MEAN THIS WAS RIGHT AFTER IT HAPPENED–GET REALLY FRESH DETAILED PERSONAL ACCOUNTS. THEIR VOICES ARE STILL THERE, ALMOST AS IF THEY WERE ALIVE NOW.
TRACK 3: Zucchino isn’t the only one to recognize the value of the insights the black press offers. Trevy McDonald is an associate professor at the Hussman School of journalism and media at UNC. She teaches a class on the black press and United States history.
McDonald: ONE OF THE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT THE BLACK PRESS IS THAT IT’S ALWAYS BEEN AN ADVOCACY PRESS, SINCE IT WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1827 WITH THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST BLACK NEWSPAPER UP THROUGH THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.
But finding those historical publications can be difficult. David Blythe is the assistant curator for the North Carolina collection at Wilson Library on UNC’s campus. He works in acquisitions.
BLYTHE: ONE THING I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR, AND I’M ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT FOR, ARE MORE ISSUES OF PAPERS THAT WERE PRODUCED BY AND/OR FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS, PARTICULARLY, YOU KNOW, AFTER THE CIVIL WAR AND BEFORE JIM CROW REALLY SORT OF CHANGED RACE RELATIONS. BUT THEY’RE HARD TO FIND.
In sharing a historic story covered by the black press over a hundred years ago, Zucchino takes what has been hard to find and shares it with a larger audience.
ZUCCHINO: I FEEL IT’S THE JOB OF JOURNALISTS AS WELL AS HISTORIANS TO CORRECT THE RECORD. HISTORIANS CAN DO IT BUT THEY LIVE IN A KIND OF CLOISTERED WORLD, WHERE OFTEN WHAT THEY REPORT IS IN A VERY ACADEMIC WAY AND STAYS WITHIN ACADEMIA, WHEREAS JOURNALISTS SPEAK TO THE WORLD MORE THAN ACADEMICS DO. I THINK SOMETIMES OUR STORIES CAN HAVE MORE RESONANCE BECAUSE OF THE WAY WE TELL THEM.
McDonald agrees that sharing the stories found in historical black publications in an accessible way matters.
MCDONALD: I THINK THERE’S A LOT OF VALUE IN IT. FIRST OF ALL, KNOWING WHAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST SO THAT WE DON’T REPEAT IT. THAT’S THE MAIN THING. AND I THINK BEING HONEST. AND REALLY SEEING THE HUMANITY IN EVERYONE INVOLVED IS REALLY IMPORTANT–THAT’S HOW WE’RE GOING TO MOVE TOWARDS MORE UNDERSTANDING AND MAYBE STARTING OUR WAY ON A HEALING PATH IN THIS NATION.
