For a long time, if you went to the library
in Wilmington, North Carolina, there was one thing you weren’t allowed to research. “We were refused. We were rejected by the librarian.” “When I asked about or inquired about 1898
they wanted to know why.” “I was told that yes they had something
but they kept it under lock and key." The story of Wilmington in 1898 still isn't
widely known. “What happened here — on what’s now
just this empty patch of grass would radically change racial politics in North Carolina. This is the story of an American election, but
also of something we don't usually find in American history. The violent overthrow of a democratically
elected government. In the late 1800s, Wilmington, North Carolina
was the state’s largest city. It had a majority black population, and historians
today describe it as a rarity in the post-Civil War American South. “Wilmington prior to November, 1898, was
what the New South could be at the cusp of the 20th century.” “There was an unusual degree of black prosperity.” In Wilmington there were successful black
entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers -- but also black elected officials. And for a time, that was true throughout the
State. Take a look at the politicians on this poster
of the 1889 North Carolina House of Representatives. Here at the bottom — are black Republican
representatives — some from Wilmington. North Carolina also sent four black Republicans
to the US Congress between 1875 and 1899. The Democratic and Republican parties of 1898
in many ways occupied opposite parts of the political spectrum than they do today. “Most African-Americans were voting for
the Republican Party. And the Democratic Party was white voters
almost exclusively. White supremacy was the central focus of the
platform for the Democratic Party.” Republicans in North Carolina were successful
in part because of a 3rd party called the "Populist" party, made up of mostly white
farmers fed up with the tough economic times. North Carolina Populists joined up with Republicans
to form what they called the Fusion Party. And in the elections of 1894 and 1896, the
Fusion party defeated the Democrats in sweeping victories statewide. That meant North Carolina now had a government
that shared power between black and white politicians, including a newly elected Republican
governor. Together, they moved towards reforms that
would favor black Americans and working-class whites. “This was something that the Democratic
Party folks were simply not going to accept.” A multiracial government wasn’t just a disappointment
for Democrats. It was more like a humiliation. They needed a plan to take back control of
the state in the next election. So party leaders, like Furnifold Simmons,
future US Senator; Charles Aycock, future North Carolina Governor; and this man, Alfred
Moore Wadell, came up with one: To beat the Fusion Party by luring white Populist
voters away from their alliance with Black voters. Wilmington, with a large black population
and a local Fusion government in power — would be a focus of their campaign. The state Democratic state party handbook
for 1898 laid out their goal: consolidate the white vote by stoking white anger and
resentment. It said: “this is a white man’s country
and white men must control and govern it.” Their most effective tool was the media. One of North Carolina’s biggest newspapers
was a Democratic Party mouthpiece. It ran racist political cartoons throughout
1898. “Not everybody was literate in 1898. But to see a political cartoon of the type
that ran you may not be able to read it but you know exactly what it means.” Many of the cartoons were centered on the
threat of “Negro domination”...even though the Fusion government was mostly white. They also played up another fear. “Black men threatening white women became
a theme. White men need to do all that they can to
protect white womanhood.” This was all part of North Carolina democratic
strategy, but it echoed the national racist rhetoric of the time. In one speech that Democrats printed in a
Wilmington paper — a prominent Georgia writer named Rebecca Felton said: “If it takes lynching a black man a day
to protect white womanhood ‘I say lynch". Her speech prompted a Wilmington black man
named Alex Manly, owner of the black-run, Daily Record newspaper, to respond with
a column. He made a simple observation, that at the
time, was shocking. “That white women who had liaisons with
black men did so voluntarily and enthusiastically.” Manly wrote “Every Negro lynched is called
a "big burly, black brute", when in fact many were sufficiently attractive for white
girls to fall in love with them.” “Manly pretty much said in a nutshell: sometimes
white women choose to be with black men.” Manly’s editorial became another tool for
Democrats. Newspapers reprinted it, called it “A Horrid
Slander”, and ran comments about it on a daily basis. It was just a few months before the election,
and white voters were angry. “By the time the election rolls around on
November 8th black voters, Republican voters had been thoroughly intimidated here.” By all accounts, the elections of 1898 were
a sham. The Democratic party had a paramilitary group
called the Red Shirts. They attacked and blocked black residents
from voting. At a rally just before the election, Alfred
Moore Waddell provoked the crowds. He said “negro office-holding ought at once,
and forever be brought to an end. Even if we have to choke the current of the
Cape Fear River with carcasses.” The votes were counted, and the Democrats
won. “Democratic candidates won every seat they
had a candidate up for election in.” But some local Fusionist politicians remained
in power, because their seats hadn’t been up for re-election like the white Republican
mayor and the board of aldermen. And and of course the election did nothing
to undo the economic power black folks held in the city. The Democrats had won the election, but their
goal of total white supremacist control remained out of reach. “And so they engineered what was essentially
a coup d'etat.” The day after the election, at a gathering
for white men in Wilmington, the Democrats unveiled a document they called the “White
Declaration of Independence.” It contained an ultimatum. Cynthia Brown, whose descendants were in Wilmington
back in 1898, is a historian at her church, where there’s a preserved copy of the declaration
from the next day’s newspaper. “We will no longer be ruled and will never
again be ruled by men of African origin.” They would strip black men of voting rights. They would give “white men a large part
of the employment heretofore given to” black men. And as for Alex Manly... “We demand that he leave this City forever
within twenty-four hours.” The next morning, hundreds of white men marched to the offices of the Daily Record. Manly was gone -- he had fled to save his
own life. They set the Daily Record building on fire. This is where it once stood. “Once the White leadership destroyed Alex
Manly's printing press they destroyed one way in which the African-American community
in Wilmington could organize itself and keep itself informed.” At City Hall — the mayor and board of aldermen
were forced out. “There's two hundred armed men in City Hall
at the time. They didn't do it of their own free will and
as they resigned a new member selected by the Democratic Party was voted into office.” Waddell — who once threatened to fill the
Cape Fear River with black bodies — was the new mayor of Wilmington. Meanwhile, the mob had grown to about 2,000
men, and the violence spilled into the streets. In these photos, exes mark where the first
black residents were killed. “The stories are that they were dumped into
the river. And there are varying stories about how many
people were killed.” “To me, I see 40 to 60 clearly as fatalities
as a result of the violence. But I think it was higher.” Many black residents hid for days in the swamps,
and the wooded cemeteries in the city — including Cynthia’s great grandmother. And thousands of other residents fled Wilmington,
never to return. Shortly afterward, democrats printed booklets
celebrating a glorious victory...and in the newspapers, depicted black residents as the
instigators. “This image is a gross misrepresentation
of what actually happened. You know what you see are black men with guns
not white men with machine guns.” The city never regained its black majority
population. Jim Crow laws, like literacy tests and poll
taxes that prevented black people from voting were immediately enacted and Wilmington’s
spirit of black opportunity was crushed. Black political representation in the state
was over. It would be 90 years until North Carolina
elected its next black Congress member. “Wilmington did a really great job of covering
up a very dark past for a very long time.” “Over the years, the textbooks on North
Carolina’s state history have struggled to accurately describe what happened in 1898. This book from 1933 calls what happened “unfortunate
for both races.” And this one from 1978 doesn’t have that
much more detail. But they both praise Charles Aycock, one of
the perpetrators of the riot, as a man with ‘a kind heart’ and that in fact he was
one of ‘the best friends that the colored people had in the state.' It’s a legacy that North Carolina has yet
to fully undo. The names of the perpetrators are on Wilmington's
school buildings and city parks. But the legacy is also bigger than those names. Turn on the news, and the state's long history
of political suppression echoes. “We turn to a strict new voter ID law in
North Carolina.” “Racially gerrymandering and a push for
new voting maps.” “The court says the Republican-led legislature
redrew Congressional districts along racial lines, violating the Constitution.” “There is a tremendous amount of intimidation
that is still felt by the black community.” “It doesn't have to be mass mayhem and violence
in the streets.” “The strategy shifts towards designing state
laws in such a way that you could exclude blacks from voter participation.” “The subliminal pursuit of continuing
the White declaration of independence.” “And if you don't see it for what it really
is, it can happen all over again.”
White Supremacists have arguably overthrown more governments than any other group in history. After all. The British Empire was a thing.
This is one of so many stories of black Americans prospering after slavery only to be completely oppressed all over again. It happened all over the country.
an interesting follow up video would be how how they managed to rewrite the history of the town. The ultimate goal of white supremacist is to deny and suppress the actual horrors they enacted.
I don't need to watch this. I already learned about the American Revolution in school.
Vox has really great production values and their nonpolitical videos cover some really interesting topics. It's too bad that they just have one leftist/progressive (Carlos Maza) on their Youtube channel. This video is good though.
I really hate all the white supremacists