Charles Chestnutt was an African American writer who wrote The Marrow of Tradition. This work of historical fiction sometimes classified as a melodrama. The plot tells the story of the formation of the white supremacist movement that preceded the race riots in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898. Two sisters in a small town are the central characters. One sister is about to have a child. The other sister is a half sister with a slave as her mother. Several other subplots intermingle. Black/white relationships heat up and the local government to threatened to be taken over by force.