In the late 1890s, Wilmington, North Carolina, was home to a thriving Black community where residents made themselves a political force. The votes of 8,000 Black men-among a city of 20,000-helped a rare biracial alliance elect candidates of both races.
Three of the 10 aldermen were Black. The city had Black health inspectors, postmasters, magistrates, and policemen, and Black business people pooled their money in three Black-owned banks. Families a generation removed from enslavement owned their homes and read a local Black newspaper.
But on November 10, 1898, a shocking coup was executed.
The plotters targeted the officeholders and the Black newspaper, summoned militias and white vigilantes known as Red Shirts, and terrorized Black voters at the polls. Red Shirts, militiamen, and white mobs surged through Wilmington’s streets and massacred 60 or more Black men.
Colonel Alfred Moore Waddell, a former Confederate officer who led the mob, was elected Wilmington’s new mayor-and hundreds of Black residents fled the city in the wake of the insurrection.
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9 ноя 2023
