The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw
From Reconstruction Through Black Lives Matter
The University of North Carolina Press · Print & ebook · January 27, 2026
Wyatt Outlaw’s story was one of Black success: He was a Union League leader, business owner, and the first Black town constable and commissioner in Graham, a small town located in North Carolina’s Alamance County.
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- Who it’s for
- A recovered account of Outlaw connects Alamance’s history to racial violence across generations.
- Themes
- Black political history, Racial violence, Erasure from mainstream history
- Genres
- Black & African American Lives, Black History, Civil War Era
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Wyatt Outlaw’s story was one of Black success: He was a Union League leader, business owner, and the first Black town constable and commissioner in Graham, a small town located in North Carolina’s Alamance County. But in 1870, Outlaw was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, setting off a dramatic series of events: more lynchings, a Republican-led “war” against the Klan, and a white supremacist crackdown on Black political power that continues today.
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As a child, Black activist, musician, and Graham native Sylvester Allen frequently passed the site where Outlaw was killed without ever learning his name. Belle Boggs, white and also from the South, taught high school in Alamance County without knowing Outlaw’s importance. Allen and Boggs both sought to discover why Outlaw had been erased from mainstream history books. In The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw, they share what they found in artful detail and connect Outlaw’s story to the violence against Black people in Alamance and throughout the United States, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow, the civil rights era, and Black Lives Matter. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and their own personal stories, Allen and Boggs join the conversation begun by historian Peniel Joseph and activist William Barber II about a third Reconstruction in America, but they also offer ways to move forward for any community struggling with a history of racism.
Wyatt Outlaw’s Legacy
A recovered account of Outlaw connects Alamance’s history to racial violence across generations.
Come here for
- Outlaw’s role as a Union League leader and public official
- Connections spanning Reconstruction, Jim Crow, civil rights, and Black Lives Matter
Expect
- Archival research, interviews, and personal stories
- Ways forward for communities confronting histories of racism
Where it sits
| Black & African American Lives | 40% |
|---|---|
| Civil War Era | 40% |
| Black History | 34% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Southern U.S. History
- Black History
- African American Studies
- Authors
- Sylvester Allen Jr., Belle Boggs
- Publisher
- The University of North Carolina Press
- Published
- January 27, 2026
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Black political history · Racial violence · Erasure from mainstream history
- Reading lane
- Southern U.S. History