Nov 5, 2026 · 50 min
White supremacists overthrow Wilmington’s multiracial government
The Wilmington Massacre
The 1898 coup shows how propaganda, election fraud, and organized violence dismantled Black political power and helped establish North Carolina’s Jim Crow order.
- 1Wilmington’s Fusionist coalition expanded Black political representation before white supremacists organized to reclaim control.
- 2Propaganda, voter intimidation, election fraud, and armed violence turned a political campaign into the overthrow of local government.
- 3The massacre destroyed Black institutions and accelerated disenfranchisement while white officials avoided prosecution and historical accountability.
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The episode’s central turning point is the November 10 attack, when an armed white mob destroyed Wilmington’s Black newspaper and institutions and completed the coup.
The brief
Josh and Chuck place Wilmington’s 1898 coup in the Reconstruction-era struggle over Black citizenship, political representation, and the future of multiracial government in North Carolina.
A Fusionist coalition of Republicans and Populists governed a majority-Black city with thriving institutions, prompting Democrats to launch a formal White Supremacy Campaign.
Propaganda, the Raleigh News and Observer, attacks on newspaper editor Alex Manly, Red Shirt intimidation, and election fraud helped white supremacists seize political control.
On November 10, an armed white mob burned Wilmington’s Black newspaper, attacked neighborhoods, businesses, and churches, and forced officials to resign under Alfred Moore Waddell.
The coup’s aftermath brought disenfranchisement, Jim Crow, economic and demographic damage, and decades of whitewashing before historians recovered the fuller account.
Books & mentions
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