Wilmington Insurrection of 1898

“The rich White folks inflamed the poor White folks, and told them that these Black people were taking over the city.”  – Historian Larry Thomas

First thing we do, we burn down the African-American newspaper. Yea, cancel culture.

Wilmington Insurrection of 1898

Following the Phoenix Election Riot, a white insurgent group overthrew the elected biracial fusionist government, including a white mayor, of the city of Wilmington, North Carolina. They precipitated the Wilmington insurrection of 1898. The Democrats in the state had also been working to oust the state’s Republican and populist biracial fusion government from power.  The insurrection resulted in roughly 25 African-Americans murdered and countless more injured by a white mob that roamed the city, attacking blacks.

Democratic party white supremacists overthrew the newly elected fusionist white mayor and biracial council.  The mob of around 2,000 whites took to the streets and attacked the mainly black newspaper, Daily Record. The core group of insurgents already had assigned officeholders to the city’s elected positions. Many African Americans left Wilmington permanently, although it had long been a majority-black city.

On the morning of November 10, 1898, a throng of some 2,000 armed white men took to the streets of the Southern port town of Wilmington, North Carolina. Spurred on by white supremacist politicians and businessmen, the mob burned the offices of a prominent African-American newspaper, sparking a frenzy of urban warfare that saw dozens of blacks gunned down in the streets. As the chaos unfolded, white rioters descended on City Hall and forced the town’s mayor to resign along with several black aldermen. By nightfall, the mob had seized full control of the local government, some 60 black citizens lay dead and thousands more had fled the city in panic.

While it took the form of a race riot, the Wilmington uprising was actually a calculated rebellion by a cabal of white business leaders and Democratic politicians intent on dissolving the city’s biracial, majority-Republican government. Once in power, the conspirators banished prominent black leaders and their white allies from the city and joined with other North Carolina Democrats in instituting a wave of Jim Crow laws suppressing black voting rights.

Despite its illegality, state and federal officials ultimately allowed the power grab to proceed unchecked, leading many historians to cite the Wilmington insurrection as the only successful coup d’etat in American history.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.



Main article: Wilmington insurrection of 1898


https://www.wfae.org/local-news/2018-02-20/the-latest-effort-to-confront-the-impact-of-the-1898-wilmington-race-riot


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