The Wilmington NC Insurrection of 1898: 126 years on [View all]

[littlemissmartypants]

We just had the anniversary of the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898. What follows is a collection of information about the coup from around the web.

Tonight there will be a new documentary on the coup on PBS at 9 pm.
Here's the info:
American Coup: Wilmington 1898
Voted In. Terrorized Out.

Film Description
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/american-coup-wilmington-1898/

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 tells the little-known story of a deadly race massacre and carefully orchestrated insurrection in North Carolina’s largest city in 1898 — the only coup d’état in the history of the US. Stoking fears of “Negro Rule,” self-described white supremacists used intimidation and violence to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow Wilmington’s democratically-elected, multi-racial government. Black residents were murdered and thousands were banished. The story of what happened in Wilmington was suppressed for decades until descendants and scholars began to investigate. Today, many of those descendants — Black and white — seek the truth about this intentionally buried history.

The Wilmington insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898,[6] was a coup d'état and a massacre which was carried out by white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, on Thursday, November 10, 1898.[7] The white press in Wilmington originally described the event as a race riot caused by black people. In later study from the 20th century onward, the event has been characterized as a violent overthrow of a duly elected government by a group of white supremacists.[8][9]

The coup was the result of a group of the state's white Southern Democrats conspiring and leading a mob of 2,000 white men to overthrow the legitimately elected local Fusionist biracial government in Wilmington. They expelled opposition black and white political leaders from the city, destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens built up since the American Civil War, including the only black newspaper in the city, and killed from 14[1] to an estimated 60 to more than 300 people.[2][3][4][5]

The Wilmington coup is considered a turning point in post-Reconstruction North Carolina politics. It was part of an era of more severe racial segregation and effective disenfranchisement of African Americans throughout the South, which had been underway since the passage of a new constitution in Mississippi in 1890 which raised barriers to the registration of black voters. Other states soon passed similar laws. Historian Laura Edwards writes, "What happened in Wilmington became an affirmation of white supremacy not just in that one city, but in the South and in the nation as a whole", as it affirmed that invoking "whiteness" eclipsed the legal citizenship, individual rights, and equal protection under the law that black Americans were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment.[10][11][12]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_massacre

When White Supremacists overthrew a government during the Wilmington, NC massacre of 1898 it was the only successful coup in the history of the USA.

The Red Cape
Broadcast In: English Duration: 0:56:44
*A dramatic recreation of the 1898 Wilmington Massacre and Coup, The Red Cape explores a conspiracy that terrorized a thriving southern black community through the eyes of an inquisitive child and his tenacious father. Together, they struggle to survive the mounting white supremacy campaign that leads to the only violent overthrow of a government in United States history on November 10th, 1898.

Check out ...
https://www.ncpedia.org/gsearch?query=Wilmington+coup+1898

Wilmington Coup Map, November 10, 1898

A contemporary map depicting the events of November 10, 1898 in Wilmington, N.C., the date of the coup d'état known as the Wilmington Massacre or the Wilmington Coup. The map traces the movement as well as where individuals were wounded and property damaged. The violence of November 10th spread out from the fire at the Manly printing press (set by the white supremacist conspirators and insurrectionists) to the heart of the northern section of town at the intersection of 4th and Harnett Streets. Map by Mark A. Moore, Research Branch, North Carolina Office of Archives & History.
https://www.ncpedia.org/media/map/wilmington-coup-map

The Wilmington Coup

In 1898, Wilmington was a thriving port city on the coast of North Carolina. About two-thirds of Wilmington’s population was African American. African Americans were business people who owned barbershops, restaurants, tailor shops, and drug stores. African Americans also held positions as firemen and policemen. Overall, the African American and white races existed peacefully but separately.

Good relations continued until the election of 1896, when the white Democrats lost control of state politics. A group of predominately white Populists and African American Republicans won political control of the state. The white Democrats promised to avenge their defeat at the hands of white Populists and African American Republicans in the election of 1898. Daniel Schenck, a Democratic party leader, warned, “It will be the meanest, vilest, dirtiest campaign since 1876” (the election that ended reconstruction in the South).

The Democratic campaign focused on white women’s fears of African American males and the threat of African American men being lynched. Prior to the election, a white newspaper in Wilmington published a controversial speech given by a Georgia feminist. In her speech she supported the lynching of African American males for inappropriate relationships with white women. Alex Manly, an African American newspaper editor in Wilmington, was infuriated by the newspaper article. Mr. Manly wrote editorials in his newspaper arguing that white males were just as guilty of having inappropriate relationships with African American women.The exchange of words between the two newspapers increased racial tensions. Alfred Moore Waddell, a former Confederate officer and U.S. Congressman, called for the removal of the Republicans and Populists then in power in Wilmington. He proposed in a speech that the white citizens, if necessary, should “choke the Cape Fear with carcasses."

African American voters turned out in large numbers for the election of 1898. However, the Democrats who favored white supremacy stuffed the ballot boxes and won the election. Two days after the election, violence erupted into the Wilmington Coup, previously referred to as the "Wilmington Race Riot." About 500 white men had assembled at the armory,*
https://www.ncpedia.org/glossary/armory
and Waddell lead them to the Daily Record office several blocks away. The crowd following Waddell grew to about 2,000 people as they moved across town.

During what is now called the Wilmington Coup but has also been referred to as the Wilmington Race Riot or Wilmington Massacre, a mob set Alex Manly’s newspaper office on fire, and tensions between African Americans and whites exploded. The whites demanded that Manly and his newspaper cease to publish and that Manly be banned from the community. Manly escaped from Wilmington because he was mistakenly thought to be white. African Americans armed themselves and whites began to hunt and gun them down. The mob of whites included clergymen, lawyers, bankers, and merchants**
https://www.ncpedia.org/glossary/merchant
 who all believed that they were asserting their rights as citizens. When the riot ended the next day, it was reported that twenty-five African Americans had been killed. However, it was strongly suspected that hundreds of African Americans had been killed and their bodies dumped into the river. In addition, hundreds of African Americans were banished from the city of Wilmington. This event, the Wilmington Coup, marked a turning point in North Carolina’s history because more restrictions were placed on African American voters.
https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/wilmington-coup

The 1898 Memorial Park commemorates the coup d’état that took place on November 10, 1898 in which prominent white citizens of Wilmington overthrew the legally elected biracial government of the city. It is the only coup d'etat in U.S. history, and killed an unknown number of black residents. The park was dedicated November 8, 2008.


https://www.wilmingtonnc.gov/Parks-Recreation/Parks-Trails/1898-Memorial-Park?origin=serp_auto

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