By Catherine M. Welch
Wilmington, NC – The NAACP's first national symposium on 1898 will be held Friday as part of the state conference.
President of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP says historians; civil rights activists and descendants of families impacted by the riot will take part in the symposium.
The final report by the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot commission says a quarter of all black owned businesses closed shop after the riot,and the number of black property owners was cut in half.
North Carolina Chapter President Williams Barber says it's imperative to address reparations for what happened to Wilmington's black community on November 10th 1898.
Because what happened in 1898 is not just about disenfranchisement it was about dispossession.
Barber says the NAACP is endorsing the commissions 15 recommendations which includes reparations and teaching 1898 in North Carolina schools.
Do you have insight or expertise on this topic? Please email us, we'd like to hear from you. news@whqr.org.