Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for WILMINGTON'S LIE … then take off on your own:
1. Had you known of the Wilmington massacre before reading David Zucchino's book? If so, what was your understanding of the events recounted in the book?
2. Does Wilmington's Lie challenge your view of who we are as a nation? Have we changed over the past 120+ years? How or how not?
3. Why do white people have difficulties with black peoples' self-assertion? To what extent does white anger still exist in the 21st century? What is or was the source of white anger? What about black anger?
4. Josephus Daniels, publisher of the Record, and Furnifold Simmons of the state's Democratic Party were able to exploit the anger and fears of the white population through an intentional campaign of disinformation. Is today's public as gullible as it was at the turn of the 20th century? Or, given the impact of social media, are we perhaps more so?
5. Talk about the response of the governor of North Carolina, as well as that of President William McKinley? What prevented both men from intervening?
6. Overall, what parallels, if any, does Wilmington's Lie have to today? What lessons, if any, can we learn?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Wilmington's Lie (Zucchino) - Discussion Questions
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