Lauren Collins's New Book on Wilmington Coup and Recommended Histories of Race

Lauren Collins, a writer for The New Yorker hailing from Wilmington, North Carolina, has published "They Stole a City," which features an excerpt in The New Yorker. The book chronicles the events of November 10, 1898, when armed white supremacists executed a coup, resulting in the deaths of numerous Black residents and the dismantling of the multiracial government—marking the only successful coup in U.S. history. It tells the stories of four families: two white families who participated in the violence and two Black families who endured the aftermath. Collins references notable works such as Isabel Wilkerson's "The Warmth of Other Suns," Clint Smith's "How the Word Is Passed," and Victor Luckerson's "Built from the Fire." Upcoming titles include Chang-rae Lee's "A Tender Age" and Richard Russo's "Under the Falls," both set for release on August 11.