"If it ever happens, run."

“What I recall most is the way that she grabbed my wrist and,
shaking a bit, she said over and over again, ‘If it happens, run.
Don’t let that happen to you. Run. If it ever happens, run.’” It
was years before Cynthia Brown understood what her
great-grandmother, Athalia Howe, was talking about. Athalia Howe
grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina in the late 1890s. At the
time, Wilmington was called “the freest town in the country” for
Black people, and by 1898, Black men had become integral in
Wilmington’s government. White Supremacists in the state were
determined to stop them, by "ballot or bullet or both.” David
Zucchino's book is Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and
the Rise of White Supremacy. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and
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