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

In his News and Observer newspaper, Daniels whipped up white peoples’ fears that Black men would rape white women. He published a series of stories about a white sheriff in Pamlico County who let a Black politician stay at his home. The sheriff’s daughter, Bessie, got pregnant with the politician’s child. This story was one of many Daniels used to connect the rise of Black suffrage and political power with the fear of miscegenation and rape of white women. Many of the stories were either untrue and/or sensationalist accounts of trivial events.

Simmons raised money for the White Supremacy Campaign by demanding contributions from white industrialists. Daniels also used his newspaper to target the Republican governor of North Carolina, Daniel Russell. Russell was also a white supremacist, but he had made some concessions to Black voters. In the News and Observer, Daniels wrote an editorial warning about the coming race war between Black and white people.

In August 1897, Rebecca Latimer Felton, the wife of a prominent Georgia congressman, gave a speech advocating the lynching of Black men to protect white women from the threat of rape. She, like other white supremacists, “could not envision a consensual relationship between a black man and a white woman” (83-84).

In August 1878, Black newspaper publisher Alex Manly read Felton’s speech, which was widely published throughout the South. He published a defense of Black men in his newspaper, The Record. In it, he pointed out that many Black men have white fathers—implying that white men were engaging in miscegenation and/or rape—and that often white women wish to be with Black men.

Democrat political operative Furnifold Simmons was incensed at Manly’s editorial, but he wanted to prevent retaliation until closer to the November election day so the party could capitalize on the outrage. A few days later, Manly began receiving lynching threats. On August 24th, Black men stood guard at the Record office and refused to disperse when ordered by Police Chief John Melton. The mayor, Silas Wright, eventually convinced them to leave. Despite Simmons’ plans to cool dissent, Daniels published Manly’s editorial in his paper to whip up anger. Governor Russell published a condemnation in the Raleigh Morning Post. White advertisers pulled out of the Record and the paper was forced to move locations.

Accommodationist Black leader John Dancy met with Manly and tried to get Manly to tone down his rhetoric or at least to publish an apology. Manly refused. Dancy encouraged other Black leaders to condemn Manly’s words.

In early 1898, Simmons began organizing White Government Unions throughout the state to support the White Supremacy Campaign. Especially strong in Wilmington, the Unions threatened violence against Black voters and Fusion candidates on behalf of the Democrats.

The chair of Wilmington’s Democratic Party was George Rountree. He spoke at the White Government Union to whip up white anger against Black people. Other Democrats organized into small cells to prevent Black people from voting on Election Day and/or to overthrow the city government. They created paramilitary groups to patrol white neighborhoods to protect them from Black people. Roger Moore, the head of the KKK in Wilmington and county commissioner, helped lead these groups. Some white people in Wilmington, such as Jane Cronly, were skeptical that the Black people in town intended to attack them.

In mid-September 1898, a pair of Black men attempted to buy Winchester rifles. The gun dealer refused the request and forwarded it to Daniels, who reported in the News and Observer that Black people were planning an armed insurrection to win the election. Although one private investigator reported to Rountree there were no such plans, two Black Pinkerton detectives reported to a white faction that Black people planned to burn Wilmington to the ground if they lost the election. This was reported in the newspapers and white people began stockpiling guns.

A former Confederate soldier bought a rapid-fire gun and arranged for Black dockworkers in Wilmington to watch it in action to intimidate them.

On September 20th, soldiers from the Wilmington Light Infantry arrived back from their service in the Spanish-American War. They had not actually gone to the front but remained nearby training. Many wore White Government Union pins on their uniforms. Colonel Waddell, the white supremacist leader, spoke to the assembled crowd. The Naval Reserves had also returned from their service for the war.

Some Black Americans sympathized with the cause of Cuban independence from the Spanish empire, but others felt it was a display of patriotism to enlist to serve in the Spanish-American War for the United States. Many Black men from Wilmington enlisted to serve in the conflict. They spent the war training in nearby Georgia. Unlike the Wilmington Light Infantry and Naval Reserves, the Black regiments were still at the training camp when conflict broke out in Wilmington on November 10th.

Wilmington Democrats targeted six prominent “race traitors” (white people who gave concessions to Black people) with pamphlets threatening violence. These included the mayor and police chief. One of the men, Chadbourn, the Republican postmaster, after being threatened by Rountree, conceded to the threats by writing an editorial apologizing for his previous concessionism and warning that Black men in Wilmington were “planning a race riot” (118).

Republican Governor Russell sought to appease Rountree and the Democratic Party. He agreed to pull all Republican candidates from the county race in Wilmington in exchange for the removal of two Democratic candidates who had campaigned against him. One of those Democratic candidates was replaced with Rountree himself. The Republican Party had capitulated to “political thuggery” (120).

On October 20th, supporters of the White Supremacy Campaign in Wilmington went to nearby Fayetteville to attend the Great White Man’s Rally and Basket Picnic. Nearly 8,000 people from all over North Carolina attended. There was a procession led by Red Shirts—a white supremacist paramilitary force—followed by a float with pretty young white women. Senator Ben Tillman of South Carolina gave a speech. The white supremacist berated the North Carolinians for not using more violence against Black people to prevent them from ascending to political power. He specifically advocated for Manly to be killed.

Prior to the event, there was not a large Red Shirts paramilitary in Wilmington. After attending the event, the White Government Union began to organize one.