The Ghosts of 1898
On Nov. 10, 1898, heavily armed white men marched into Wilmington's black neighborhoods. They burned down the black newspaper, murdered dozens of black residents and banished many black citizens and their allies. They also changed the state's history.
Prologue: Echoes of violence
In 1971, Wilmington trembled on the edge of race war. Seventeen years after the U.S. Supreme Court had outlawed segregation, the city's schools were finally attempting to integrate.
Introduction: Events of 1898 shaped our history
On a chilly morning 108 years ago, heavily armed white men marched into the black neighborhoods of Wilmington, the state's largest city and the center of African-American political and economic success.
Chapter 1
At the close of the 19th century, Wilmington was a symbol of black hope in post-Civil War America.
Chapter 2
Despite their defeat in 1865, the devotion of former Confederates to white dominion did not burn off like mists in the midmorning sun.
Chapter 3
Charles B. Aycock, governor from 1901 to 1905, has become the central symbol of the state's progressive traditions.
Chapter 4
To achieve victory in 1898, Democrats appealed to irrational passions, using sexualized images of black men.
Chapter 5
Early in the fall of 1898, Democratic Party organizers arrived in Wilmington to press their cause.
Chapter 6
Though Ben Tillman helped fire the boiler of white supremacy, Wilmington had plenty of homegrown talent.
Chapter 7
The white supremacy campaign was so inflammatory that violence seemed unavoidable.
Chapter 8
While the streets became a killing ground, the Committee of Twenty-Five launched a coup in the corridors of City Hall.
Chapter 9
Despite Mayor Waddell's assertion of "no intimidation," martial celebrations seemed in order.
Chapter 10
The Wilmington race riot did not invent segregation in the South but instead cemented it.
Chapter 11
For decades afterward, participation in the 1898 campaign became the irreplaceable political credential.
Epilogue: Building from the past
As a historian, I find it easier to understand what happened in the past than to draw easy lessons for the future. We cannot go back and change the history and yet, as William Faulkner observed, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
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