1898 Broadsheetwilmington

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 C M Y K DESIGNER—x3625—STATE EDITION—FILMX The Ghosts of 1898 WILMINGTON’S RACE RIOT AND THE RISE OF WHITE SUPREMACY Destruction of The Daily Record of Wilmington, said to be the only black-owned daily newspaper in the United States at the time, by white supremacists. COURTESY N.C. ARCHIVES AND HISTORY CHARLES B. AYCOCK BY TIMOTHY B. TYSON 1898. And Wilmington remained the center of African-American economic Charles Brantley Aycock gradu- n Nov. 10, 1898, heavily armed columns of white men marched into the black neighbor- ated from the University of North and political power, as well as a sym- Carolina in 1880, practiced law in hoods of Wilmington. In the name of white supremacy, this well-ordered mob burned the bol of black pride. White Democrats Goldsboro and became involved in were in no mood to wait. Democratic Party politics. As offices of the local black newspaper, murdered perhaps dozens of black residents — the The day after the election, Waddell North Carolina’s governor from precise number isn’t known — and banished many successful black citizens and their so- unfurled a “White Declaration of Inde- 1901 to 1905, he championed edu- pendence” that called for the disfran- cation and white supremacy. He called “white nigger” allies. A new social order was born in the blood and the flames, rooted chisement of black voters. The following morning, Nov. 10, died in 1912 while delivering a in what The News and Observer’s publisher, Josephus Daniels, heralded as “permanent good Waddell and a heavily armed crowd of speech on education. government by the party of the White Man.” about 2,000 marched to Love and Char- ity Hall, where the Record had been JOSEPHUS DANIELS O The Wilmington race riot of 1898 stands as one of the most important chapters in North Carolina’s published. The mob battered down the After studying door of the two-story frame structure, at the University history. It is also an event of national historical significance. Occurring only two years after the dumped kerosene on the wooden of North Car- Supreme Court had sanctioned “separate but equal” segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson, the riot marked floors, and set the building ablaze. olina’s law Soon the streets filled with angry school, Josephus the embrace of virulent Jim Crow racism, not merely in Wilmington, but across the United States. blacks and whites. Red Shirts on horse- Daniels was ad- back poured into the black community mitted to the bar Despite its importance, the riot has shared their economic grievances. for white women. Newspaper stories and other white vigilantes romped in 1885, though remained a hidden chapter in our As the economic depression deep- and stump speeches warned of “black through the black sections of town to he never prac- state’s history. It was only this year that ened, these white Populists joined beasts” who threatened the flower of “kill every damn nigger in sight,” as ticed. He purchased The News and North Carolina completed its official in- forces with black Republicans, form- Southern womanhood. one of them put it. Observer in 1896, making it a vestigation of the violence. In addition ing an interracial “Fusion” coalition The Democrats did not rely solely At the end of the day, no one knew pivotal instrument of the white to providing a thorough history of the that championed local self-govern- upon newspapers, however, but de- how many people had died — esti- supremacy campaign. President event, the report of the Wilmington ment, free public education and elec- ployed a statewide campaign of stump mates ranged from nine to 300. The Woodrow Wilson named him secre- Race Riot Commission recommended toral reforms that would give black speakers, torchlight parades and phys- only certainty in the matter of casual- tary of the Navy in 1913. President payments to descendants of victims. men the same voting rights as whites. ical intimidation. Aycock earned his ties is that democracy was gravely Franklin Roosevelt appointed him And it advised media outlets, including In the 1894 and 1896 elections, the Fu- chance to become North Carolina’s wounded on the streets of Wilmington. ambassador to Mexico in 1933. The News & Observer, to tell the peo- sion movement won every statewide “education governor” through his While the violence raged, white lead- ple the truth about 1898. office, swept the legislature and elected fiery speeches for white supremacy. ers launched a coup d’etat, forcing the ALEXANDER MANLY Those truths include that what oc- its most prominent white leader, mayor, the board of aldermen, and the curred in Wilmington on that chilly Daniel Russell, to the governorship. Issue of race and sex police chief to resign at gunpoint. By Alexander Manly autumn morning was not a sponta- In Wilmington, the Fusion triumph 4 p.m. that day, Waddell was Wilm- was editor of The neous outbreak of mob violence. It lifted black and white Republicans As in the rest of the state, Wilm- ington’s mayor. Daily Record, was, instead, the climax of a care- and white Populists to power. Hor- ington Democrats founded their cam- Still, they were not done. The white believed to be the fully orchestrated statewide cam- rified white Democrats vowed to re- paign upon propaganda, violence and mob gathered at the city jail to watch only daily newspa- paign led by some of the leading fig- gain control of the government. fraud. Their efforts to persuade white soldiers with fixed bayonets march Fu- per in the country ures in North Carolina’s history to men to commit wholesale violence sionist leaders to the train station, ban- owned by an end interracial cooperation and build Race baiting fuels vote was made easier in August 1898 when ishing at least 21 successful blacks and African-American a one-party state that would assure Alexander Manly, the black owner of their white allies from the city. at the time. His the power of North Carolina’s busi- As the 1898 political season loomed, The Daily Record, answered a speech editorial attacking whites’ hypocriti- ness elite. the Populists and Republicans hoped supporting lynchings. Not all interra- Effects of 1898 linger cal attitudes toward interracial sex to make more gains through Fusion. cial sex is rape, he noted; many white was used by Democratic leaders to The black-white coalition To rebound, Democrats knew they women willingly sleep with black men. When the new legislature met in support their anti-black scare tactics. had to develop campaign issues that For Democrats, Manly’s editorial 1899, its first order of business was to At the end of the 19th century, transcended party lines. Democratic was a godsend, allowing them to sup- disfranchise blacks. In the years that fol- FURNIFOLD SIMMONS Wilmington was a symbol of black chairman Furnifold Simmons mapped port their lies about predatory blacks. lowed, the leaders of the white su- After losing statewide elections in hope. Thanks to its busy port, the out the strategy with leaders whose And no one was better at spreading premacy campaign were largely re- 1894 and 1896, the North Carolina black majority city was North Car- names would be immortalized in stat- that message of hate and violence sponsible for the birth of the Jim Crow Democratic Party turned to Furni- olina’s largest and most important ues, building names and street signs: than Wilmington’s Alfred Waddell. social order and the rise of a one-party fold Simmons. As party chairman, municipality. Blacks owned 10 of the Charles B. Aycock, Henry G. Connor, The former Confederate soldier was political system. the former congressman orches- city’s 11 eating houses and 20 of its 22 Robert B. Glenn, Claude Kitchin, a passionate speaker, who riled crowds More than a century later, it is clear trated the campaign of 1898 that barbershops. The black male liter- Locke Craig, Cameron Morrison, with his famous line: “We will never that the white supremacy campaign restored Democrats to power. In acy rate was higher than that of George Rountree, Francis D. Winston surrender to a ragged raffle of Ne- of 1898 injected a vicious racial ide- whites. and Josephus Daniels. groes, even if we have to choke the gratitude, the legislature appointed ology into American political culture Black achievement, however, was They soon decided that racist ap- Cape Fear River with carcasses.” him in 1900 to a seat in the U.S. that we have yet to transcend fully. always fragile. Wealthy whites were peals were the hammer they needed As Waddell spoke, the Red Shirts, a Senate that he held for 30 years. Our separate and unequal lives attest willing to accept some black advance- to shatter the fragile alliance between paramilitary arm of the Democratic to the fact, though much has changed ment, so long as they held the reins of poor whites and blacks. They made Party, thundered across the state on ALFRED MOORE WADDELL for the better and a few things have power. Through the Democratic Party, the “redemption” of North Carolina horseback, disrupting African-Amer- changed for the worse. Alfred Moore Waddell served four whites controlled the state and local from “Negro domination” the theme ican church services and Republican But if 1898 has saddled us with its terms in Congress (1871-1879). A governments from 1876 to 1894. How- of the 1898 campaign. Though meetings. In Wilmington, the Red legacy, it also suggests how we might gifted orator, he championed white ever, the party’s coalition of wealthy, promising to restore something tra- Shirts patrolled every street in the overcome it.

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