{"product_id":"the-architecture-of-erasure-robert-walker-9798243171649","title":"The Architecture of Erasure: A Novel of Woodrow Wilson and the Dismantling of Black America","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA civil service exam score of 94.7. A house in LeDroit Park. A president's written promise of justice.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBy 1915, all of it was gone.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Woodrow Wilson entered the White House in 1913, James Cornelius Saunders was living proof that merit could triumph over prejudice. A Treasury Department clerk who had earned his position through one of the highest exam scores in Washington, he owned his home, sent his son to Howard University, and believed in the American promise.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWithin two years, wooden screens surrounded his desk. His salary was cut in half. His house was seized. His son never finished college. James spent the next twenty-eight years mopping floors in the building where he once balanced the nation's books.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe was not alone. Thousands of Black federal employees faced the same systematic destruction-not through violence or mobs, but through policy, procedure, and paperwork. Through architecture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA century later, historian Marcus Webb opens a box his dying grandmother placed in his hands.\u003c\/b\u003e Inside: a brass key, a broken-promise letter, a photograph of a house that no longer exists. As he traces the documentary evidence of his great-great-grandfather's destruction, Marcus discovers that the architecture of erasure was designed to leave no fingerprints-yet somehow, the evidence survived.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Architecture of Erasure\u003c\/b\u003e moves between the federal offices of 1913 and the archives of 2020, weaving a dual narrative of destruction and recovery. It is a novel about what gets built when merit systems are dismantled, what gets lost when homes are foreclosed, and what gets found when one generation finally reads the letters another risked everything to preserve.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the story Woodrow Wilson's legacy tried to bury.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Robert Walker\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798243171649\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/08\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 342\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.91lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.85d","brand":"Robert Walker","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48852780810495,"sku":"9798243171649","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-architecture-of-erasure-robert-walker-9798243171649","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}