The Wilmington Massacre Of 1898 [PT 1]

In celebration of Black History Month, please enjoy this reprint of the Wilmington Massacre Of 1898, Pt 1 and 2. It is one of my favorite articles and sheds light on a little known historical event in American history. The act reverberated across the old south and left a blood stained legacy that endures to this very day…

What if I told you that in 1898, the city of Wilmington, North Carolina overthrew it elected officials and installed nine Klan members to take their places? It happened and it was the only time in American history that a city government was toppled by a coup d’état. Sit back and relax, while I tell you the story of the Wilmington Massacre of 1898.

In 1860, before the Civil War, Wilmington was majority black and one of the largest city in the state, with nearly 10,000 people. Numerous slaves and free people of color worked at the port, in households as domestic servants, and in a variety of jobs as artisans and skilled workers. After the Civil War, many freed men and women left the plantations and rural area’s for larger cities. They did it for two reasons. One,they wanted to get away from having to be ruled over by their former slave masters and they thought there would be safety in numbers.

After the 14th Amendment was ratified and with the start of Reconstruction, newly freed back people were given the reins to their destiny. Forty years later the reins were taken and black folks were being dragged behind the horse. We will get to that after some more background. The newly freed slaves began to vote… and win offices. Remember they were the majority in Wilmington. They held two of the most important offices at the time, Mayor and Sheriff. They was rolling. One of the first things they did was enact laws that for lack of a better description, redistributed wealth and that sugar went on for years.

In the years that followed, Wilmington, then the largest city in the state, had a majority-black population, with black people accounting for about 55 percent of its roughly 25,000 people. Included were numerous black professionals and businessmen, and a rising middle class. The Republican Party black and white members in the city. Unlike in many other jurisdictions, black people in Wilmington were elected to local office, and also gained prominent positions in the community. For example, three of the city’s aldermen were black. Of the five members on the constituent board of audit and finance, one was black. Black people were also in positions of justice of the peace, deputy clerk of court, street superintendent, coroners, policemen, mail clerks and mail carriers.

Blacks also held significant economic power in the city. Many former slaves had skills which they were able to use in the marketplace. For example, several became bakers, grocers, dyers, etc., making up nearly 35 percent of Wilmington’s service positions. They made the change from a common thief, to up close and personal with Robin Leach, and if you don’t know, now you know. Okay.. I’ll stop it.. Black people were moving out of service jobs and into other types of employment, where there was a higher demand for their work, along with higher pay. At the time, black people accounted for over 30 percent of Wilmington’s skilled craftsmen, such as mechanics, carpenters, jewelers, watchmakers, painters, plasterers, plumbers, stevedores, blacksmiths, masons, and wheelwrights. In addition, blacks owned ten of the city’s 11 restaurants, 90 percent of the city’s 22 barbers, and one of the city’s four fish and oysters dealerships. There were also more black bootmakers/shoemakers than white ones, one-third of the city’s butchers were black, and half of the city’s tailors were black. Lastly, two brothers, Alexander and Frank Manly, owned The Daily Record (Wilmington), one of the few black newspapers in the state at the time, which was reported to be the only black daily newspaper in the country, and if you don’t know, now you know… Okay.. I”ll try to get under control..

With blacks in the area rising out of slavery, racial tension begin to emerge as they progressed economically, socially, and politically. As slaves and children of slaves, they had no inherited wealth. In addition, credit or loans available to them were marked up in price. The annual interest rate of credit charged to blacks was nearly 15 percent, compared to under 7.5 percent for poor whites; and lenders refused to let blacks pay off their mortgages in installments. This practice, known as “principal or nothing”, positioned lenders to take over black property and businesses through forced sales. The lack of inherited wealth, limitations of access to credit, and loss of savings through federal mismanagement and fraud, created a combined effect in which blacks “could not save anything”, or otherwise acquire the means, to own taxable property.

Affluent whites believed that they were paying taxes in a disproportionate amount given the amount of property they owned, relative to the city’s blacks, who now held the political power to prevent affluent whites from changing this ratio. Additionally, there was tension with poor, unskilled whites, who competed with blacks in the job market, and found their services in less demand than that of skilled black labor. Blacks were caught between not meeting the expectations of affluent whites, and exceeding the expectations of poor whites, effectively moving too fast and too slow at the same time. There was a sentiment of the negro’s as being uppity. Although they did not own “real property,” they ran everything and believe me the racist wanted that changed.

“While thus numerically strong, the Negro is not a factor in the development of the city or section. With thirty years of freedom behind him and with an absolute equality of educational advantages with the whites, there is not today in Wilmington a single Negro savings bank or any other distinctively Negro educational or charitable institution; while the race has not produced a physician or lawyer of note. In other words, the Negro in Wilmington has progressed in very slight degree from the time when he was a slave. His condition can be summed up in a line. Of the taxes in the city of Wilmington and the county of New Hanover the whites pay 96 2/3rds per cent; while the Negroes pay the remainder — 3 1/3rds per cent. The Negro in North Carolina, as these figures show, is thriftless, improvident, does not accumulate money, and is not accounted a desirable citizen.”

Haterator, Henry L. West, journalist for The Washington Post, November 1898

Several homes and businesses of successful blacks would sometimes be torched by whites at night. But because blacks had enough economic and political power to defend their interests, socially, things were relatively peaceful until the 1898 “White Supremacy” campaign. In late 1897, nine prominent Wilmington men were unhappy with what they called “Negro Rule”. They were particularly aggrieved about Fusion government reforms that affected their ability to manage, and “game” (fix to their advantage), the city’s affairs. Interest rates were lowered, which decreased banking revenue. Tax laws were adjusted, directly affecting stockholders and property owners who now had to pay a “like proportion” of taxes on the property they owned. Railroad regulations were tightened, making it more difficult for those who had railroad holdings to capitalize on them. Many Wilmington Democrats thought these reforms were directed at them, the city’s economic leaders. The Fusion leaders were some prominent black and white politicians. In Wilmington there were four leaders and worked in concert with a circle of patrons – made up of about 2,000 black voters and about 150 whites – known as “The Ring.” The Ring included about 20 prominent businessmen, about six first- and second-generation New Englanders from families that had settled in the Cape Fear region before the War, and influential black families such as the Sampsons and the Howes. The Ring wielded political power using patronage, money, and an effective press through the Wilmington Post and The Daily Record. The stage was set.

Join us tomorrow when the racist show them how they really feel, in the conclusion to “The Wilmington Massacre.”