A revealing work of public history that shows how communities remember their pasts to fit specific narratives, this book charts the ebb and flow of racial tension in Wilmington, North Carolina, from the 1730s to the present. Margaret Mulrooney argues that while the city has celebrated its white colonial revolutionary origins, it has ignored the revolutionary acts of its African American citizens.

This book uses the 1998 commemoration of the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 as a springboard to explore the historic roots of modern disagreements over cultural heritage.