November 10 …

The Wilmington Massacre of 1898 was a politically motivated white supremacist coup and massacre in Wilmington, NC that overthrew the city’s biracial government and destroyed its Black-owned press and businesses.

The roots of the violence can be traced back to a white supremacist campaign in 1898 that employed provocative newspaper reporting and paramilitary organizations to dismantle the political achievements of the Fusion Party, aka the Fusionist movement. This coup reached its peak on November 10, 1898, when a white mob expelled Black leaders, burned down the Daily Record — the state’s only daily African-American newspaper — and forced the resignation or exile of elected officials.

The campaign had begun earlier that year as white Democratic leaders throughout North Carolina aimed to “redeem” white dominance following Fusionist victories in the 1890s. This matched the patterns of disfranchisement and racial terror that had emerged in the post-Reconstruction era.

Key figures in this violent upheaval included white Democratic political leaders and vigilante organizers such as Alfred M. Waddell (who subsequently became mayor) and members of local militias like the “Red Shirts” and Wilmington Light Infantry, who orchestrated the mob’s actions.

Estimates of Black fatalities vary widely, with conservative figures exceeding a dozen and scholarly estimates ranging into the dozens or even hundreds, resulting in countless Black citizens being killed, injured, or driven out of the city. Notable victims included Alex Manly, a Black businessman and editor whose newspaper editorials served as a pretext for the violence. There were many other unnamed residents and members of the broader African American community in Wilmington who suffered a devastating loss of political power, property, and lives.

The aftermath included the immediate dismantling of Wilmington’s multiracial government, long-term disfranchisement of Black North Carolinians through legal changes and intimidation between 1899 and 1904, the solidification of Jim Crow laws in the state. This ushered in a lasting local and national legacy of racial violence and organized political coup that faced minimal legal repercussions.

Scholars, commissions — most notably the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission established by the state in 2000 — historians, and descendants have sought to attain recognition, promote public awareness, and commemorate victims of the Wilmington Massacre. Their aim is to conduct corrective scholarship to honor the legacy of the event and its significance in American history.