City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Wilmington's lie, the murderous coup of 1898 and the rise of white supremacy, David Zucchino

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

Wilmington's lie

bibliography

David Zucchino

the murderous coup of 1898 and the rise of white supremacy

By 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina, was a shining example of a mixed-race community-a bustling port city with a thriving African American middle class and a government made up of Republicans and Populists. But white supremacist Democrats were working to reverse the advances made by former slaves and their progeny. They were plotting to take back the state legislature in the upcoming and then trigger a "race riot" to overthrow the elected government in Wilmington. With a coordinated campaign of intimidation and violence, the Democrats stole the 1898 mid-term election. Two days later, more than 2,000 heavily armed white nightriders swarmed through Wilmington, terrorizing women and children and shooting at least sixty black men dead in the streets. It halted gains made by blacks and restored racism as official government policy, cementing white rule for another seventy years. It was not a "race riot" as the events of November 1898 came to be known, but rather a racially-motivated rebellion launched by white supremacists