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On Nov. 10, 1898, an armed white mob
effected a coup d’etat, the only one in
the nation ever, and seized control of
the city of Wilmington.
For years, it was presented
as a spontaneous event, an uprising
against corrupt city government which
had been elected by an alliance of the
city’s growing black professional and
middle-class residents with local
Republicans (hated by many North
Carolinians because that was the party
of the slain President Abraham Lincoln)
and the Populists. The combination of
Republicans and Populists was called
Fusion, and Democrats were determined to
regain control of the city (and state)
after the elections of 1894 and 1896
which Fusion candidates won.
Leading Democrats, including
a future governor, Charles Brantley
Aycock, and the publisher of The News &
Observer in Raleigh, Josephus Daniel,
inflamed passions with racist rhetoric.
Local Democrats won the Nov.
8, 1898, election in Wilmington by
stuffing ballot boxes and scaring
would-be black voters.
That was not enough. A group
of whites wanted to kick newspaper
editor Alex Manly out of the city and
all black men out of any position of
responsibility and respect.
During the events of Nov.
10, a few armed men grew to a mob of
over 2,000. Manly’s office and press
were set ablaze, an unknown number of
people both black and white but mostly
black were killed and black families
fled to the woods and swamps, never to
return to Wilmington. All black leaders
who remained were forced to leave the
city.
The white Democrats won
statewide as a result, electing Aycock
in 1900, and within two years had
enacted the legislation that signaled
the beginnings of the Jim Crow era in
our state.
The 13-member commission
which uncovered the true story of the
Wilmington “riot” is due to unveil its
recommendations to repair the damage of
108 years of historical falsehood to the
North Carolina Legislature in May.
The most important way to
make amends may be for every Tar Heel of
every color to learn the truth and
ponder how it has shaped today’s society
not only here but across the nation,
because federal leaders were also
culpable.
“Because Wilmington rioters
were able to murder blacks in daylight
and overthrow Republican government
without penalty or federal intervention,
everyone in the state, regardless of
race, knew that the white supremacy
campaign was victorious on all fronts,”
the 600-page draft report said.
The full text of that report
along with information about the
commission appointed in 2000, a
Powerpoint presentation of the salient
facts and other information is available
at
http://www.ahdcr.state.nc.us/1898.
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