Wilmington's Lie

The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy

By: David Zucchino

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

By the 1890s, Wilmington was North Carolina’s largest city and a shining example of a mixed-race community. It was a bustling port city with a burgeoning African American middle class and a Fusionist government of Republicans and Populists that included black aldermen, police officers, and magistrates. There were successful black-owned businesses and an African American newspaper, The Record. But across the state - and the South - white supremacist Democrats were working to reverse the advances made by former slaves and their progeny.

In 1898, in response to a speech calling for white men to rise to the defense of Southern womanhood against the supposed threat of black predators, Alexander Manly, the outspoken young Record editor, wrote that some relationships between black men and white women were consensual. His editorial ignited outrage across the South, with calls to lynch Manly.

But North Carolina’s white supremacist Democrats had a different strategy. They were plotting to take back the state legislature in November “by the ballot or bullet or both”, and then use the Manly editorial to trigger a “race riot” to overthrow Wilmington’s multi-racial government. Led by prominent citizens including Josephus Daniels, publisher of the state’s largest newspaper, and former Confederate Colonel Alfred Moore Waddell, white supremacists rolled out a carefully orchestrated campaign that included raucous rallies, race-baiting editorials and newspaper cartoons, and sensational, fabricated news stories.

With intimidation and violence, the Democrats suppressed the black vote and stuffed ballot boxes (or threw them out), to win control of the state legislature on November eighth. Two days later, more than 2,000 heavily armed Red Shirts swarmed through Wilmington, torching the Record office, terrorizing women and children, and shooting at least 60 black men dead in the streets. The rioters forced city officials to resign at gunpoint and replaced them with mob leaders. Prominent blacks - and sympathetic whites - were banished. Hundreds of terrified black families took refuge in surrounding swamps and forests.

This brutal insurrection is a rare instance of a violent overthrow of an elected government in the US. It halted gains made by blacks and restored racism as official government policy, cementing white rule for another half century. It was not a “race riot”, as the events of November 1898 came to be known, but rather a racially motivated rebellion launched by white supremacists.

In Wilmington’s Lie, Pulitzer Prize-winner David Zucchino uses contemporary newspaper accounts, diaries, letters, and official communications to create a gripping and compelling narrative that weaves together individual stories of hate and fear and brutality. This is a dramatic and definitive account of a remarkable but forgotten chapter of American history.

©2020 David Zucchino (P)2020 Recorded Books

The more things change the more they stay the same....

This book was very informative. I heard about this story in the past but never in such detail. Some of the tactics pulled back then is still being felt right now with liberals trying to suppress the black and brown vote. The more things change the more they stay the same. This a great read for everyone to know how black people were treated even after slavery.

Wow wtf this goes so hard

Write privileges at its worst is described in explicit detail. Let the guilty burn in….

History unveiled

Unveiled history gives pause for deep contemplation.This is an interesting read and a commendable presentation.

Unvarnished American Historical Content.

I am a history major that wasn't taught facts until now. Very enlightening historical novel.

History covered up and untold.

Both sides of my family are from NC and I was born there as well. This story was never heard or discussed. But this story shows that history repeats itself. The same behavior by those RWS in 1898 are some of the same behavior shown on 1/6/2021. And the attack on blacks voting right. As well as extrajudicial violence by police towards blacks. This story could easily take place today because Anti-Black hate still exists. It may be more refined, in some cases, but is there nonetheless. I more clearly understand why my father hates returning to NC even to visit relatives after 52 years.