On this day, November 10, 1898, the Wilmington massacre of 1898 occurred. [View all]

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On this day in 1898, after a biracial government was elected into office, mobs of armed white supremacists invaded Wilmington city hall in North Carolina, and forced everyone to resign. The mob also destroyed Black businesses and killed dozens of Black people.

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Wilmington insurrection of 1898


Mob posing by the ruins of The Daily Record

The Wilmington insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898, was a mass riot and insurrection carried out by white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, on Thursday, November 10, 1898. Though the white press in Wilmington originally described the event as a race riot caused by blacks, as more facts were publicized over time it came to be seen as a coup d'état, the violent overthrow of a duly elected government, by a group of white supremacists.

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‘Violently erased’: PBS documentary examines legacy of Wilmington’s 1898 coup
By Peter Castagno November 7, 2024

https://images.portcitydaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/The-Daily-Record-after-burning-of-the-press-November-10-1898-1068x650.webp
The Black-owned newspaper The Daily Record after it was burned on Nov. 10, 1898, following the only coup in American history in Wilmington, North Carolina. (Courtesy photo)

WILMINGTON — Descendants of the victims and perpetrators of the 1898 Wilmington coup share their views of the massacre’s historical legacy in a new documentary that will air as the 136th anniversary nears. Filmmakers and descendants featured in the film hope to spread awareness of the historic event and rectify lasting wounds inflicted on Wilmington’s African American community.

Wilmington in 1898 was the largest city in North Carolina and one of the most prosperous in the post-Civil War South. A new PBS documentary — which airs on Nov. 12 but will have its debut at Thalian Hall on Thursday — details the role African American business and community leaders held in the city before a white supremacist mob carried out the only coup d’etat in United States history.

“Wilmington shows us the fragility of a few things,” filmmaker Yoruba Richen told Port City Daily. “The fragility of democracy.” ... Before the coup, Wilmington was led by an alliance of a Populist and Republican leaders, or “Fusionist” government. African Americans held three seats on the city’s 10–member board of aldermen and served local positions as magistrates, firefighters, and police. Wilmington’s multiracial Fusionist government advocated greater public participation in elections, tightened railroad regulations, and adjusted taxes for stockholders and property owners.

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A Black Man Killed by a White Mob in 1898 Finally Receives a Funeral
The mob killed Joshua Halsey and up to 250 other people that day in the predominantly Black city of Wilmington, N.C. Last weekend, city leaders and Mr. Halsey’s living relatives honored him.


Freemasons from the Grand Lodge of South Carolina took soil collected in honor of Joshua Halsey to his grave site last Saturday in Wilmington, N.C. Mr. Halsey was buried in an unmarked grave in 1898 after he was shot 14 times by a mob.Credit...Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

By Maria Cramer
Nov. 10, 2021

Joshua Halsey, a Black laborer and father of four girls, was asleep in bed on Nov. 10, 1898, when one of his daughters shook him awake. ... He was deaf and hadn’t heard the gunshots fired by a white mob advancing through the streets of Wilmington, N.C., then a predominantly Black city where residents owned businesses and occupied seats of power. ... The mob was intent on overthrowing the municipal government, which was made up of Black leaders and their white allies.

Mr. Halsey, a well-liked 46-year-old whose family had lived in the city for 100 years, was one of their targets, according to historical accounts. ... He ran out the back door, but the mob caught up with him about a block from his house on Bladen Street and shot him 14 times. He was buried hastily in an unmarked grave in a family plot at the Pine Forest Cemetery. Most of his family fled to New Jersey, part of a diaspora of Black residents, artisans and professionals who left the city after what became known as the Wilmington Massacre and Coup d’état of 1898.

On Saturday, nearly 123 years after his death, Mr. Halsey received a funeral that was attended by city leaders, hundreds of residents and his living relatives, who came from scattered parts of the country. Some of them said they had learned only in recent years that they were his descendants.

A horse-drawn carriage carried a coffin holding a jar of the soil taken from the site where he died. A headstone engraved with Mr. Halsey’s name and the names of his wife, Sallie, and their four daughters was placed at his grave. ... “It was unbelievable,” said Gwendolyn Alexis, 65, a great-granddaughter of Mr. Halsey. “It was just so powerful.”

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Fri Nov 10, 2023: On this day, November 10, 1898, the Wilmington massacre of 1898 occurred.

Thu Nov 10, 2022: On this day, November 10, 1898, the Wilmington massacre of 1898 began.

Tue Nov 10, 2020: On this day, November 10, 1898, the Wilmington massacre of 1898 began.