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

“For whites in Wilmington, blacks had ceased to be slaves, but they had not ceased to be black. They were still considered unworthy, unequal, and inferior, still subservient to whites by any measure—social, political, or economic.”

This quote describes the racial prejudice held by white people in Wilmington during the Reconstruction era (See: Background). Although legally Black people had been given rights, including limited suffrage, racist attitudes prevailed.

“‘Galloway ought to be arrested at once,’ the Journal demanded.

White politicians claimed there had been massive voter fraud. They demanded that the election results be invalidated.”

A major theme of Wilmington’s Lie is Media and Propaganda’s Role in Fostering Racism. In this quote, Zucchino quotes from newspaper reports at the time to illustrate the overwhelming white media narrative about Black political power in the South: That it was dangerous and unlawful. This quote specifically refers to the election of Abraham Galloway to state senate in 1868.

“Wilmington’s poisonous racial history had taught cautious black men like John Dancy to avoid antagonizing whites, for such behavior could prove fatal. At the same time, the city’s violent past had also instilled in Wilmington’s white men an abiding fear that their deferential black neighbors might one day rise up and slit their throats.”

In this quote, Zucchino explains why wealthy Black residents of Wilmington like John Dancy sought “appeasement” of white supremacists. It also explains the long hold that Nat Turner’s uprising held on the white community of the South.

“It was a bold and virtually unprecedented experiment. Nowhere else in the South during post-Reconstruction did whites and blacks so successfully unite in a multiracial political partnership. Fusionists managed to win the statewide election in 1894 and seize control of the North Carolina legislature.”

This quote describes the political environment in Wilmington and North Carolina more generally immediately prior to the events of 1898. The alliance between Republicans and white working-class Populists allowed them to take control of North Carolina politics. It was against this alliance that white supremacist Democrats organized to regain political control.

“After meeting with Daniels in New Bern in the spring of 1898, Simmons began to craft the party’s white supremacy message. The effort soon acquired a formal name proudly embraced by Democrats: the White Supremacy Campaign. Its ultimate goal was to evict blacks from office and intimidate black voters from going to the polls.”

Zucchino details the links between Racial Violence and Political Coups. He traces the beginning of the Wilmington coup of 1898 to this meeting between Simmons and Daniels. He describes in straightforward terms their goals and the methods they intended to use to obtain them, fostering racial hatred for political ends.

“In Wilmington, home to the largest and most aggressive White Government Unions, the groups served as the intelligence and tactical arms of the local Democratic Party. Their aim, according to one member, was ‘to announce on all occasions that they would succeed if they had to shoot every negro in the city.’”

One important aspect of Racial Violence and Political Coups at the time was the use of organizing committees, known as White Government Unions, to advance the campaign at the local level. These Unions were unafraid to use violence to achieve their goals and were vocal about their threats.

“If the time came after the election to forcibly remove blacks and Fusionists from city positions, the infantry could be called to the streets under the pretext of suppressing the widely predicted black uprising. But first, white vigilantes would assault blacks, precipitating a ‘riot’ by any blacks who resisted. Subsequent attacks on blacks or Fusionists could be attributed to the legitimate efforts of the Light Infantry to restore public order.”

In this quote, Zucchino describes how white supremacists planned to antagonize the Black community to draw them into a violence encounter. This would then give them a justification to retaliate with even greater force. Most remarkably, members of the United States armed forces, the Wilmington Light Infantry and the Naval Reserves, were prepared to contribute to this coup.

“Throughout the Black Belt, where Democrats had also threatened white riots, Republicans withdrew local black candidates from the campaign. It was a remarkable demonstration of political thuggery.”

The Democrats’ White Supremacy Campaign was focused on the Black Belt, or counties that had majority Black populations (See: Index of Terms). Zucchino characterizes the Democratic threats of violence using the phrase “political thuggery.” This expression implies that the Democrats were acting in an uncivilized and illegal manner.

“The White Government Union men on the train had just witnessed the intimidating effect of red-shirted gunmen, marching in military formation in Fayetteville. Soon after the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway train rolled back home into the port city, the wives and sisters of the men aboard began sewing shirts and jackets of red calico and silk.”

As detailed by Zucchino, an important aspect of Racial Violence and Political Coups were campaign rallies held throughout the state. These rallies generated voter enthusiasm and provided an opportunity for different factions of white supremacists to learn tactics from one another. In this quote, Zucchino describes how the white supremacists of Wilmington were inspired to form their own Red Shirt paramilitaries after seeing the example at the Great White Man’s Rally and Basket Picnic.

“Graham did not vote in the election. He also advised his black friends not to vote—a needless gesture for many because they, too, had been whipped and beaten by white men. Graham spoke for them all: ‘I was whipped out of politics.’”

T.A. Graham, a Black man who had been encouraging his neighbors to register and vote, was dragged out of his house and beaten by Red Shirts for his advocacy. His quote here demonstrates the impact of racial violence and its role in Wilmington politics to suppress the Black vote.

“‘We cannot outnumber the negroes,’ he said. ‘And so we must either outcheat, outcount or outshoot them!’”

This quote from Claude Kitchin from a speech he gave at a November 1st white supremacist rally in Laurinburg, North Carolina, illustrates that the Democrats made no secret of their plans to use violence if necessary to secure political power in the Black Belt, or majority-Black counties. Zucchino includes this quote as an example of Media and Propaganda’s Role in Fostering Racism. Rallies and speeches such as this one were a key element of the Democrats’ propaganda strategy.

“Wilmington might be preparing for a siege instead of an election.”

This quote from a report on Wilmington on October 25th, 1898, a few weeks before the election is an example of Zucchino’s use of contemporaneous media coverage to highlight the white media narrative at the time. Although his focus is on Wilmington or North Carolina newspapers, he also includes quotes from Northern newspapers to show the reach of this narrative. This quote is from a story written by journalist Henry Litchfield in the Washington Post.

“Simply registering to vote required supreme courage and sustained fortitude in the face of white intimidation inflamed by newspaper coverage.”

Zucchino states in plain terms the impact of racial violence on the Black community in North Carolina, and particularly in Wilmington. Black men were intimidated with violence and/or job loss when they expressed an interest in voting. Zucchino’s language shows his admiration for these men, whom he characterizes as having “courage” and “fortitude.”

“The white supremacy campaign had proved more successful than Daniels and Simmons could possibly have hoped when they first met in New Bern in March to plot a new era of white redemption. In a matter of months, their campaign had intimidated and terrified thousands of black men into staying home from the polls; of the state’s roughly one hundred thousand eligible black voters, fewer than half had voted.”

Zucchino illustrates the impact of racial violence by describing the drop in Black voter turnout in the November 1898 election. He highlights how Daniels and Simmons’ white supremacy campaign’s sustained attacks on the Black community led to their political victory.

“If events played out as he anticipated, he would assume his rightful place as not only the voice but also the physical embodiment of white supremacy in Wilmington. Through the summer and fall, he had aroused and channeled white rage. Now it was a weapon in his hands.”

In some passages, such as this one, Zucchino uses historical evidence to give a narrative description of the figures’ likely state of mind. Here, he characterizes Colonel Waddell’s anticipation of using white supremacist violence to carry out the coup on November 10th, 1898.

“But now MacRae realized that any role by his troops in the day’s events could prompt federal intervention. Beyond that, he saw that the black men were terrified and wanted only to go home and protect their families. ‘It was little less than murder that they proposed,’ he said later of the mob.”

Some of the white supremacist leaders expressed chagrin at the violence they themselves had unleashed. One of those leaders, Captain MacRae of the Wilmington Light Infantry, had convinced themselves they would be putting down an armed Black insurrection and instead found themselves fighting disorganized small groups of fleeing men.

“The next morning, the city’s white newspapers, quoting white witnesses, reported that blacks had fired first.”

Zucchino analyzes Media and Propaganda’s Role in Fostering Racism, including its selective use of sources. As a reporter, he understands the importance of getting many sides to a story to present a balanced account of events. However, the partisan Democratic newspapers in Wilmington and elsewhere were only interested in reporting and propagating white media narratives, as shown in this quote.

“Word spread quickly through Wilmington’s white community that Negroes were shooting at whites. Wilmington’s streets were overrun by white men rushing with their guns to help put down the anticipated black rebellion. The long-planned killing of Wilmington’s black population had begun.”

Zucchino’s use of “long-planned” in this quote emphasizes the connection between Simmons and Daniels’ white supremacy campaign and the racial and political violence in Wilmington on November 10th, invoking Racial Violence and Political Coups. The plan to antagonize the Black community into firing in self-defense in order to justify a “retaliation” by the armed and organized white mob mentioned earlier in the text has been enacted.

“In a matter of minutes, the eight Fusionists on the board—including three black men—had been replaced by eight white supremacist Democrats.”

One of links between Racial Violence and Political Coups described by Zucchino is the use of the trappings of normal political process—in this case, a meeting of the city aldermen—to enact an unlawful coup. As shown in this quote, these processes can quickly change the political balance in a city.

“‘For the most part,’ the Morning Star told its readers the day after the inquest, testimony had been provided by ‘good reputable citizens.’ Their accounts, the paper said, ‘prove conclusively that the negroes were the aggressors in the unfortunate affair and that the white men were forced to fire as a matter of protection.’”

Throughout, Zucchino focuses on how the white newspapers justified and sanitized events to suit their white supremacist narrative. Here, this quote describing the outcomes of the perfunctory inquest into the deaths of some of the Black victims of the Wilmington coup notes that the newspaper characterized the white witnesses as “‘good reputable citizens’” despite their reluctance to admit who had shot the men.

“Collier’s Weekly was a useful tool for disseminating the white narrative that the killings were necessary to remove a corrupt government dominated by blacks plotting an armed insurrection.”

Following the coup, Colonel Waddell wrote his account of events for the Northern magazine Collier’s Weekly. This ensured that, as Zucchino notes elsewhere, the history was written by the victors.

“‘Manly is responsible for the whole unfortunate condition of things,’ he said. ‘When he published his editorial reflecting upon the white women of the State, I with other leading colored men of Wilmington held a conference with him and urged him to retract the article. We even went so far as to write an editorial retracting the one written by Manly, but he would not take our advice and publish it. If he had done so there would have been no race war in Wilmington.’”

This quote from Black businessman John Dancy shows how members of the Black community blamed Alex Manly and his strident editorial for the violence on November 10th. It shows how entrenched the “race war” narrative had become soon after the coup—even members of the Black community were echoing it.

“They knew that no white man in the state would be prosecuted for killing blacks. No Red Shirt would face justice for threatening blacks or whipping them in their homes. No Democratic poll worker would be held accountable for stuffing ballot boxes. Murder, fraud, and voter intimidation had been effectively legalized, so long as the targets were black.”

Zucchino illustrates how the impacts of racial violence and the political coup were very different for white and Black citizens. The white leadership was never prosecuted and many went on to have long and successful political careers, while many Black leaders fled into exile and worked working-class jobs like janitor and housepainter. In this quote, Zucchino implies that this outcome was tacitly permitted by American institutions.