EOTO #2: Wilmington Race Riots

On the 10th of November, 1898 Wilmington North Carolina was plunged into chaos. After the Civil War unchecked racial tension in the South had not been resolved. This made the south a hotbed of racial violence and predigest. And sometimes the unchecked anger and misunderstandings would turn over and rear its nasty head.

The riots started over an article published in an African American newspaper called the Wilmington Daily Record. It criticized the lynching of an African American rapist in Georgia two years prior. The article was controversial because the editor Alexander Manly made the claim that white men were just as likely to rape a black woman as a black man was to rape a white woman. In response a mob of close to 500 white men burnt down the press offices of the Wilmington Daily Record, and shot into African American homes.

Extra tension was in the air because it was an election year. And North Carolina was a major battle ground between the democratic and republican parties. The democratic party at this time was pro segregation and anti black. The governor sent in militia to stop the violence. However the militia was lead by members of the democratic party and they only arrested blacks Once the riots stopped 11 where dead and 25 wounded. Only 3 whites were wounded however reports intentionally lied to try to drum up democratic sentiment claiming that 250 plus were killed. Eventually this was rectified however after that years election. Where the democrats swept the state and elected a practical monopoly.