Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy

The attack on Black people and the Republican government in Wilmington on November 10th, 1898, was part of a long history of racial politics in the American South. In Wilmington’s Lie, David Zucchino connects the attack on Black people and the Fusionist city government on November 10th, 1898, to the long history of racial politics in the American South.

North Carolina was part of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The Confederates were fighting against President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1st, 1863, which abolished enslavement. In April 1865, the Confederates surrendered and shortly after, President Lincoln was assassinated. Following the assassination, Andrew Johnson, “a white supremacist Southerner” (13), became president.

Following the Civil War was a period known as Reconstruction. During this time, a series of laws were passed to expand the rights of former enslaved persons and to reincorporate former Confederate states into the Union. With the support of President Andrew Johnson, many former Confederate leaders retained power and passed Black Codes to suppress Black rights. Despite this, Republicans passed the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution on February 3rd, 1870, which gave Black men the right to vote. Out of recognition for the support, Black voters voted overwhelmingly for the Republican party.

Reconstruction came to a close in 1877. Throughout the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction period, the segregationist, former Confederate political leaders in the Democratic Party sought to regain political control in the South and nationally. It is within this context that the Democratic Party in North Carolina, and Wilmington in particular, launched their plan to use electoral fraud and violence to overthrow the racially-integrated Fusionist government and replace it with an all-white Democratic one in 1898. This plan was known as the white supremacy strategy.