What was built
- Established or development period
- 1865–1898
- Peak period
- 1890s
- Who built the community
- Formerly enslaved and free Black residents, Black artisans, tradesmen, professionals and Fusionist officeholders.
- Black population
- Wilmington was majority Black, roughly 11,000 of about 20,000 residents in 1897.
- Businesses
- Black barbers, butchers, restaurateurs, jewelers, tailors, druggists, contractors and a substantial Black skilled-trades economy.
- Financial institutions
- Black-run mutual aid and building associations.
- Churches
- St. Stephen A.M.E., Chestnut Street Presbyterian, First Baptist and other congregations.
- Schools
- Gregory Normal Institute and Black public schools.
- Hospitals
- Black physicians in private practice.
- Newspapers
- The Daily Record, edited by Alexander Manly, one of the few Black-owned daily newspapers in the country.
- Entertainment & cultural institutions
- Not yet documented
- Other community institutions
- Black aldermen, magistrates, police officers, a Black-majority municipal workforce and fraternal orders.
- Black land & property ownership
- Substantial Black home ownership and commercial property in a majority-Black city.
- Economic significance
- The largest city in North Carolina and the clearest example of Black political and economic power in the post-Reconstruction South.
What happened
- What happened?
- On November 10, 1898, a white mob of some 2,000 men burned the Daily Record, killed Black residents, banished Black and white Fusionist leaders at gunpoint, and forced the elected biracial city government to resign, the only successful coup d'état against a sitting government in United States history.
- Trigger or precipitating event
- The 1898 white-supremacy election campaign and a hostile response to an editorial by Alexander Manly in the Daily Record.
- Underlying historical context
- A statewide Democratic white-supremacy campaign to overturn Fusionist Black–white political coalitions and disenfranchise Black voters.
- Method of destruction / displacement
- Massacre · Mob Violence · Arson · Political Coup · Expulsion
- Date or period of destruction
- November 10, 1898
- Confirmed / documented deaths
- At least 14 documented Black deaths.
- Estimated deaths
- Estimates range from roughly 60 to more than 300. SOURCES DIFFER: bodies were reportedly concealed and never counted.
- People displaced
- More than 2,000 Black residents left Wilmington permanently in the weeks that followed.
- Homes destroyed
- Not yet documented
- Businesses destroyed
- The Daily Record building was burned; Black businesses were abandoned in the exodus.
- Acres or property lost
- Not yet documented
Afterward
- What happened to the land?
- Property of banished and fleeing residents was sold or abandoned, and Black ownership fell sharply.
- Was compensation paid?
- None.
- Was the community rebuilt?
- No: Wilmington shifted from a Black-majority to a white-majority city and Black political power was extinguished for generations.
- What was rebuilt?
- Not yet documented
- Destroyed or displaced again?
- Not yet documented
- Second displacement date
- Not yet documented
- Second displacement cause
- Not yet documented
- What exists there today?
- Historic markers, the 1898 Memorial Park and the Third Street memorial.
- Descendant, reparation & restoration efforts
- The North Carolina 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission report (2006) documented the coup and recommended remedies.
- Historical significance
- The only coup d'état carried out against an elected American government, and the template for Southern disenfranchisement.
Sources
- Source lookupFind
North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission, Final Report (2006)
- Book or scholarly workFind
David S. Cecelski and Timothy B. Tyson, eds., Democracy Betrayed (UNC Press, 1998)
- Primary recordFind
Library of Congress, Chronicling America: 1898 North Carolina newspapers
- Primary recordFind
State Archives of North Carolina, Wilmington 1898 collections
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Last verified: 2026-09-20. This is a living historical collection. Additional communities and documentation will be added as research and verification continue.