The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw: From Reconstruction Through Black Lives Matter

Playwright, composer, and activist Allen teams up with UNC English professor Boggs (The Gulf) for a meandering exploration of the life and murder of Wyatt Outlaw. A Reconstruction-era Black politician and constable in Alamance County, N.C., Outlaw was lynched in 1870 by Klansmen who never stood trial. The book aims to resuscitate Outlaw’s remarkable legacy—the first Black town commissioner of Graham, N.C., he stood up to KKK Night Riders, for which he was later murdered in retribution—as well as draw a line from Reconstruction-era white terrorism to the present. Through a mix of chilling primary sources, interviews with present-day residents of Alamance County, and personal reflections (Allen grew up in Alamance, Boggs moved there), the authors point to the continued persistence of white supremacist forces in the legal system, as well as the region’s robust history of Black civic engagement. Allen’s segments bring a poetic tinge to the narrative, documenting his efforts to dramatize Outlaw’s last hours in a stage play. Boggs meanwhile recounts her archival research into Wyatt’s death and the fate of his killers—several of whom were present years later at the unveiling of a (horrifyingly, still-standing) Confederate statue at the spot where they murdered him. While somewhat scattered, with a plethora of asides, tangents, and voices, this is still a potent reckoning with an intentionally obfuscated history. (Jan.)