From the end of January into the beginning of February 1971, Black students led a boycott of New Hanover and Hoggard High Schools in Wilmington, North Carolina. These events resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of ten individuals who became known as the Wilmington Ten. This thesis focuses on a specific series of events leading up to the arrests of the Ten: the combination of Black student advocacy both inside and outside of the high schools, Black student boycotts of the high schools, and the outbreak of civil unrest and arsons committed by unknown persons during the first week of February 1971 referred to as the 1971 Rebellion. This thesis and public history project examine the experiences of high school students—Black and white—leading up to, during, and after the events of the 1971 Rebellion to provide a community-level view of the complex dynamics of race, violence, and desegregation in the US South. Newspaper articles, yearbooks, and oral histories suggest that the closure of the all-Black Williston High School along with decades of racial trauma led to the events of the 1971 Rebellion. Williston High School was a point of pride for Black Wilmingtonians, not only for the students who attended but for the entire surrounding community. Throughout the era of legally-enforced school segregation, 1896-1954, generations of educators used what resources they had to build Williston into a well-respected institution. Generations of Black Wilmingtonians went to Williston and it was considered a rite of passage for students—whose parents and grandparents went through the school—to graduate from it. Williston united the community through extracurricular activities such as football and choir and it yielded extremely well-educated students who moved on to higher levels of education. Students were robbed of these experiences with the abrupt and surreptitious closure of the school. The integration of Black students in the remaining white schools of Wilmington cultivated an environment in which Black students experienced displacement and ostracization, fostering hostilities that ultimately led to the 1971 Rebellion. This historical essay serves as a guide to the public history website of this thesis and provides context to the complex racial history of Wilmington, with an emphasis on the legacies of the 1898 massacre, educational experiences during the era of Jim Crow segregation and white imposed integration of those same schools, and ending with a summary analysis of oral histories.