Toggle Menu
Greater Diversity News Homepage
  • Jobs HomePost or Search
    • Search Jobs
    • Send Advertisements/Jobs
    • Weekly PDF Editions
  • Books of KnowledgeEducation for The Masses
    • Latest Books
    • Get Started: Reading Order
    • Books of Knowledge Newsletter Archives
  • A Call to ColorsEducate, Organize, Mobilize
    • A Call to Colors Articles
    • About Civic Engagement Project
    • Civic Engagement Headlines
    • The Network for 2018
    • GDN eNews Archives
  • Economic EquityExpanding Equal Access
    • Economic Equity Headlines
    • About Economic Equity
    • GDN eNews Archives
  • Events
    • View Events
    • Month View
    • Post Events
  • Subscribe
    • Subscribe to eNews
    • Subscribe to Print
  • Sections/Archives
    • Latest Headlines
    • GDN eNews Archives
    • Books of Knowledge
    • Civic Engagement Headlines
    • Economic Equity Headlines
    • NAACP News
    • Weekly PDF Editions
      • Print PDF Archives
    • All GDN Posts
  • Login/Register
    • Login
    • Register
  • Contact Us
    • General Questions
    • Send Advertisements
    • Contact GDN Sales
    • About GDN Products
    • Advertise
NCDOT
Repeating History: Remembering Events Leading to Nov. 10, 1898 Wilmington Massacre

Repeating History: Remembering Events Leading to Nov. 10, 1898 Wilmington Massacre

by The Zinn Education Project October 11, 2017

Editors note: Greater Diversity News is located in Wilmington, N.C., the location of the 1898 Wilmington Massacre. GDN will be publishing a series of articles over the next month remembering the past, understanding it’s relationship to the populist movements of today and exposing unsettling similarities between then and now. Subscribe to GDN eNews to get our weekly updates and don’t miss this insightful series.


( The Zinn Education Project) – On November 10, 1898, one of the worst “race massacres” in U.S. history left 30 to 100 African Americans dead in Wilmington, NC and the elected government was deposed in a coup d’etat.

Before the violence, this port city on the Cape Fear River was remarkably integrated. Three out of the ten aldermen were African Americans, and Blacks worked as policemen, firemen, and magistrates.

Democrats, the party of the Confederacy, vowed to end this “Negro domination” in the 1898 state legislative elections. Their strategy was to enlist men who could write (white journalists and cartoonists), men who could speak (white supremacists who whipped up emotions at rallies), and men who could ride (the Ku Klux Klan-like “Red Shirts” who were basically armed ruffians on horseback).

The white supremacists used an editorial by Alex Manly, the editor of Wilmington’s black newspaper the Daily Record, to stir a firestorm at the time of the elections. The editorial responded to a speech by a Georgia socialite who promoted lynching as a method “to protect woman’s dearest possession from the ravening human beast.”

Manly condemned lynching and pointed out the hypocrisy of describing black men as “big burly, black brute(s)” when in reality it was white men who regularly raped black women without impunity. He added that some relations between the races were consensual.

White supremacist rallies kept white outrage at the editorial at a fever pitch. Former Confederate colonel Alfred Waddell gave a speech suggesting that white citizens should “choke the Cape Fear (River) with carcasses” if necessary to keep blacks from the polls.

On election day, the Red Shirts patrolled black neighborhoods with guns. Democrats won every seat, but these were state legislative seats. African Americans still maintained power in Wilmington’s city government.

Some 800 white citizens led by Waddell met at the county courthouse and produced the “White Declaration of Independence” which stated: “We, the undersigned citizens… do hereby declare that we will no longer be ruled, and will never again be ruled by men of African origin.”

The following day—November 10—Waddell led a mob of 2,000 armed men to the Daily Record and burned the building to the ground.

Rumors tore through the black neighborhoods. The tinderbox ignited at the corner of Fourth and Harnett, where African Americans at Walker’s Grocery Store faced off against white men at Brunje’s saloon. A shot was fired and someone yelled, “White man killed.”

Gunfire erupted. Unarmed black men scattered in all directions and were gunned down. Violence quickly spread. The Wilmington Light Infantry, the White Government Union, and the Red Shirts poured into the black neighborhoods with rifles, revolvers, and a Gatling gun.

As bullets were still flying, Waddell threw out the democratically-elected aldermen and installed his own. This was nothing less than a coup d’état. The hand-picked men “elected” Waddell mayor. Many black leaders were jailed “for their own safety” and then forcibly marched to the train station under military escort and sent out of town.

After the massacre, thousands of black citizens fled. In 1900, the North Carolina legislature effectively stripped African Americans of the vote through the grandfather clause and ushered in the worst of the Jim Crow laws.

Courtesy The Zinn Education Project
A collaboration between Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related Civic Engagement Headlines Articles

Similar Posts From Civic Engagement Headlines Category
A New Breed of  Bigoted Politicians

A New Breed of Bigoted Politicians

October 8, 2015
HBCU Millennials Energized to Vote!

HBCU Millennials Energized to Vote!

September 12, 2018
Andrea Harris, President Of The North Carolina Institute Of  Minority Economic Development, to Receive The U.S Department Of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency Abe Venable Award

Andrea Harris, President Of The North Carolina Institute Of Minority Economic Development, to Receive The U.S Department Of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency Abe Venable Award

December 3, 2012

tetsaro

Featured Jobs & Bids

  1. Rodgers Builders, Inc.

    East Carolina University – Life Science and Biotechnology Building project

  2. North Carolina State Ports Authority

    CBP Building Remodel Improvements C-1264 (W)

  3. Wake Technical Community College

    NWC Exterior Hydronic Piping Project and RP2 Equipment Addition

  4. Robeson Community College

    Director, NC Works Customized Training

  5. Robeson Community College

    Administrative Assistant, Workforce Development

  6. Beaufort County Water District I - Washington Township

    2016 Water System Improvements Contract No. 14 – Well No. 65-CH and Well No. 66-PD Contract No. 15 – WTP 61 Expansion

  7. Housing Authority of the City of Wilmington

    Re- Bid for IFB for Shingle Roof Replacement

  8. American South General Contractors, Inc.

    Ramsey Activity Center Façade Replacement at Western Carolina University

  9. BECO, INC.

    UNCG Foust Building Electrical Upgrades Greensboro, NC

  10. NHM Constructors, LLC

    UNC-Asheville Owen & Carmichael Renovations

  11. Orange Water & Sewer Authority

    Architectural And or Engineering Firm to Design Multiply Roofing And Building Envelope Projects

  12. Town of Liberty, NC

    Professional Engineering Services

  13. Johnston County Public Schools

    Replacement of the Smithfield-Selma Senior High School Visitor Football Grandstand Bleachers

  14. Piedmont Triad Airport Authority

    Video Management System Upgrade Project

  15. H&M Constructors

    New Primary School for Clay County, Hayesville, North Carolina

  16. I.L. Long Construction Co., Inc.

    “Aviation Center for Forsyth Technical Community College” Project

  17. I.L. Long Construction Co., Inc.

    “UNCSA Performance Place Renovations”

  18. Baker Mechanical, Inc.

    Seeking Minority Prices for work relating to HVAC

  19. Elevation Water District

    2017-18 Hydraulic Improvements

  20. Turner Murphy Company, Inc. –

    Yanceyville Wastewater Treatment Plant

  21. State Utility Contractors, Inc.

    Yanceyville Waste Water Treatment Plant project

  22. City of Greenville, in the Public Works Department

    2019 Stormwater Pipe Repair Project Greenville, North Carolina

  23. City of Rocky Mount

    “CRM #76259 – Fire Station #4 and #5 Renovations”

  24. Lomax Construction, Inc.

    Randolph Community College – Advanced Manufacturing Renovations, Asheboro, NC

  25. Lomax Construction, Inc.

    Aviation Center Forsyth Technical Community College – Winston-Salem, NC

  26. Housing Authority of the City of Wilmington

    New Roof and Overflow Brains at Solomon Towers

  27. Housing Authority of the City of Wilmington

    New Construction – Dawson Loft Apartment Building

  28. City of Greenville

    Human Resources Generalist

  29. American South General Contractors

    Southern Pines Elementary School

  30. Terry’s Plumbing and Utilities, Inc.

    Aberdeen Elementary School Sanitary Sewer Outfall- Moore County Schools, Water and Sewer Replacement Project Phase 2- Town of Troy, NC

  31. Balfour Beatty Construction Company

    UNC Wilmington Dobo Hall Repairs & Renovation, UNCW Parking Deck II

  32. Young McQueen Grading

    DN00497 – Henderson Co. – B-6021 Bridge Replacement

  33. Johnston County Public Utilities

    Buffalo Water District Project No. 1 2017-18 Hydraulic Improvements DWI Project No.: H-SRP-D-17-0022

  34. Surry County Schools

    Dobson Elem. School – 312 Renovations and Additions, Franklin Elem. School – 324, Renovations and Additions Mountain Park Elem. School – 332, Renovations and Additions

  35. Frank L. Blum Construction Company

    Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Faculty Recruitment Laboratory Renovations project at UNC School of Medicine


tetsaro
tetsaro
Banner
  • Refund Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Job Posting
  • GDN eNews Subscription for Economic Equity Updates

Designed by Intimiste Creative Group

© 2017 Copyright Greater Diversity News. All Rights reserved.

  Close Window

Loading, Please Wait!

This may take a second or two. Loading