WILMINGTON INSURRECTION

The Wilmington Race Riot, also known as the Wilmington Massacre, was the only successful coup-d’etat in American history. The insurrection occurred on November 10th, 1898, in North Carolina’s then-largest city-state, Wilmington. The port town was home to a flourishing black middle-class. Despite the U.S. civil war and the consequent abolishment of slavery occurring only three decades prior, black individuals were beginning to own property and attend higher education. Alongside social advancement, the black community also saw political development with the rise of Fusionist politics - a coalition of black and white Americans advocating for debt relief, free education, and equal rights for African Americans. Fusionist politicians dominated elections in 1896, occupying all state-wide offices.

As a result of the Fusionist's growing popularity, the opposing Democratic Party began an aggressive campaign in the run-up to the 1898 elections. The Democratic Party of the time did not share the same ideals as the current party. The core principles of the Democratic Party centered around white supremacy, racial segregation, and greater independence for individual states. The anti-Fusionist campaign involved newspapers accusing African Americans of a rape epidemic upon white women and intimidation tactics, which took the form of militia groups attacking black voters. On the day before the election, Democrat Alfred Moore Waddell gave a speech demanding that white men "tell [black voters] to leave the polls and if he refuses, kill, shoot him down in his tracks. We shall win tomorrow if we have to do it with guns."

Though the Democratic Party won the state elections, Fusionist politicians remained in power in Wilmington since local elections were not due for another year. Two days after the 1989 state elections, Waddell and several hundred armed white individuals took to the streets. The riot group destroyed black businesses and the newspaper building, the Wilmington Daily Record, killed an estimated 90-250 black people, and caused many more to flee into the nearby woods. The riot culminated in the Democratic Party forcing the elected Fusionist politicians to resign at gunpoint. The Democratic Party seized power within the day, and within two years the party implemented new segregation laws, reducing the legal voting population of African Americans from 125,000 in 1896 to 6,000 in 1902.

No one has been held accountable for the coup. Many buildings in North Carolina remain named after instigators of the massacre. A statue of Charles Aycock, organizer of the Democratic Party’s election campaign and governor of North Carolina in 1901, stands in the U.S. Capitol today.