The Marrow of Tradition (AmazonClassics Edition)

Drawing on the 1898 overthrow of the Wilmington, North Carolina, government by white supremacists, Charles W.

Chesnutt’ s classic novel unmasked the racism of the post-Reconstruction South. William Miller is an eminent black physician determined to build a practice and advance the cause of reconciliation in his hometown during the Jim Crow era. Major Carteret is a white supremacist newspaperman sowing the seeds of unrest in an already segregated city.

With county elections at stake, a murder provides all the fuel that Major Carteret needs to spark a violent revolt, with typically tragic consequences.

And justice, when it comes, is only partial and incomplete.