The Wilmington Race Riots

1. The Wilmington Race Riots November 12, 1898—A military-style column of European American men went into the African American part of town, destroying the African American newspaper office, then burning and killing their way through the rest of that part of town.

2. Questions to Consider: * Why did this riot take place? * How was it justified? * What was its long term impact? * How did it usher in Jim Crow in North Carolina?

3. Who? Predominantly New South leaders, not Civil War veterans • Three state Democratic Party leaders instigated the riots without participating in them • Josephus Daniels—publisher of several newspapers, including the Kinston Free Press and the Raleigh News and Observer • Charles Aycock—governor of North Carolina, 1901-1905 • Furnifold M. Simmons—U.S. Representative 1887-89, U.S. Senator 1901-1931

4. Riot Leaders? Colonel Alfred M. Waddell—a colorful character but not seen as a real leader in Wilmington, yet made into the mayor following the riots until 1904 Hugh McCrea—a local Wilmington native with an MIT education and owner of a textile plant

5. The Riot in Pictures THE REVOLUTION AT WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA (From top left, clockwise) 1. Ex-Congressman Alfred M. Waddell, Revolutionary Mayor of Wilmington. 2. "Manhattan Park," where Shooting Affray took place. 3. Fourth and Harnet, where first Negroes fell. 4. E.G. Parmalee, new Chief of Police. 5. The wrecked "Record" Building and a Group of Vigilantes

6. What was the context for the riots? • During the 1880s, the United States suffered the largest agricultural depression in history, felt particularly strongly in the South • Politically, there was no place for Southern poor and lower middle-class European Americans to go. Democrats were the party of the politically powerful. Republicans were the “Negro” party. • The Populist Party gave poor and lower middle-class European Americans a political home

7. The Fusionists In 1894, North Carolina Republicans and Populists struck a deal for political convenience, becoming the Fusionists: Members of either party did not lose their party affiliation, but the two parties worked as a coalition 1894—Fusionists win the North Carolina General Assembly 1896—Fusionists gain control of virtually all other state offices

8. Fusionist Reforms The first act of the Fusionists was to put in place political reforms • No land ownership requirements for voting, use of secret ballots, use of poll watchers, etc. • Democrats feared they would never be able to win back the government

9. In 1898 Democrats use violence to undermine Fusionist power. • Rhetorical Battle • Feed stories of African American men raping European American women, especially to newspapers. • Played up fears of a non-segregated society in political speeches

10. The Facts About Lynching • The accusations against persons lynched, according to the Tuskegee Institute records for the years 1882 to 1951, were: • 41 per cent for felonious assault • 19.2 per cent for rape • 6.1 per cent for attempted rape • 4.9 per cent for robbery and theft • 1.8 per cent for insult to white persons • 22.7 per cent for miscellaneous offenses or no offense at all. In the last category are all sorts of trivial “offenses” such as “disputing with a white man,” attempting to register to vote, “unpopularity”, self-defense, testifying against a white man, “asking a white woman in marriage”, and “peeping in a window.”

11. The Facts about Rape • Homicides and felonious assault, not rape, were most frequently cited in explanation of mob action. • Next in importance, from the viewpoint of number of cases, is rape and attempted rape—25.3 per cent of the victims. • Concerning this figure, Myrdal states: “There is much reason to believe that this figure has been inflated by the fact that a mob which makes the accusation of rape is secure from any further investigation; by the broad Southern definition of rape to include all sexual relations between Negro men and white women; and by the psychopathic fears of white women in their contacts with Negro men.” • Another fact which refutes the fallacy of rape as being the primary cause of Negro lynchings is that between 1882 and 1927, 92 women were victims of lynch mobs: 76 Negro and 16 white.8 Certainly they could not have been rapists.

12. - Economic Battle • Credit (for such things as fertilizer, seed, etc.) given only to store owners who were registered Democrats • Enforced boycotts against Fusionist store owners (Democrat employers would fire a worker for buying a hat from a Fusionist store owner, etc.) - Physical Battle • By election day (November 10, 1898), systematic violence had been instigated throughout the state. • A typical example was Elizabeth City, where the African American newspaper had been burned down, guards were posted on every corner, and after the election, every leading Fusionist was forced out of town.

13. Wilmington Riot in 1898 The riots occurred in Wilmington after the election (November 12, 1898) and became much more violent because its government was controlled by Fusionists and not all were up for reelection in 1898. The Democrats forced the European American Fusionists out of town and told African Americans they would not be allowed to hold certain jobs, such as being doctors, lawyers, etc.

14. Headlines from New York Herald (Nov. 11, 1898)

15. Headlines from The News and Observer (Nov. 11, 1898)

16. Headlines from The Morning Star (Nov. 1, 1898)

17. Assessing the Riot: * The Wilmington riot demonstrated the unwillingness of the national Republican administration to act against even the most flagrant lawlessness, and the basis was laid for new state legislation effectively denying voting rights to blacks. • Black Protest was a central cause of riot: Alex Manly, editor of the Wilmington Daily Record, charged that, "poor white men are careless in the matter of protecting their women," and that, "our experience among poor white people in the country teaches us that women of that race are not any more particular in the matter of clandestine meetings with colored men than the white men with the colored women." • The revolt had the support of many of the most powerful men in the city, among them William Rand Kenan and Hugh McRae. George Roundtree, an attorney and advisor to the coup leaders, in 1899 served as chairman of the state legislative committee on constitutional reform that drafted and sponsored the so-called "Grandfather Clause," providing that the male citizens could vote if they could read and write or if their grandfather voted, thereby denying most African Americans the right to vote.