Sean Stanek is an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Holly Shelter. He said the planning for this project started at the beginning of the school year.
“I wanted to pilot the program; I wanted to get back into National History Day, and asked if I had any kids that would volunteer to do it with no grade attached, potentially stay after school and just do it for the love of history. And I had maybe five or six [students initially], and slowly but surely, they stopped doing it until I was left with Olivia and Zipporah,” Stanek said.
He’s talking about Olivia Stetler and Zipporah Tunnage — who didn’t just stick with the project; they took it to a state-level competition and won.
“We had our interview with the judges, we won first place, we won the HG Jones Award in North Carolina history, and our project will be displayed in the Smithsonian during the week of national competition at the University of Maryland,” Zipporah said.
Zipporah said they chose this project because details of the 1898 coup and massacre, where white supremacists in Wilmington overthrew the elected government and killed and displaced Black residents, still aren’t common knowledge among students.
“When our teacher asked how many people knew about it, only me and someone else raised our hands,” she said.
Olivia said their project fits the competition’s theme: a “turning point” in history.
“Not only were African Americans completely disenfranchised in a day; I mean, they lost representation in government, but it had a kind of ripple effect throughout America. It's America's only successful coup, and it reinvigorated Jim Crow laws and set a precedent,” she said.
Olivia said this project connected her and Zipporah to the community.
“Speaking to descendants, there are so many things they're able to tell us that isn't shown in history books,” Olivia said.
Gwen Alexis is the great-granddaughter of Joshua Halsey, a Black man murdered by White supremacists during the coup. Halsey’s gravestone was discovered by researchers John Jeremiah Sullivan and Joel Finsel of the Third Person Project. It’s one of the only markers that exists for one of the victims of the massacre.
Alexis, along with Kieran Haile, a descendant of Alex Manly, the owner of the Black newspaper The Daily Record, which was burned down during the coup, is featured in the students’ video for the project.
Lucy McCauley is also in the video. Her great-grandfather was William Berry McKoy — one of the perpetrators of violence during the coup.
Alexis said she’s proud of Olivia and Zipporah’s work.
Alexis was introduced to Olivia’s mom at a UNCW panel held last year that featured descendants of those involved in 1898.
“I gave them my phone number and said, ‘If you ever need anything, reach out,’” Alexis said.
Alexis, a history professor, said she still has more to learn about her great-grandfather. Only five years ago, through DNA testing, did she learn she was related to Halsey.
Before that, she said, “Being a Black person in America, I didn't know where I came from.”
Alexis’s father was from the Brooklyn neighborhood in Wilmington but later moved to Brooklyn, New York. She said her father — and others like him – likely moved because of deteriorating economic conditions and not feeling safe.
“They don't understand that people didn't just say, ‘Let me move to a new job, a new house.’ A lot of them are running for their lives. A lot of them were thrown out. A lot of them were afraid of being lynched,” she said.
She’s also concerned about the current attacks on teaching Black history — and that the coup holds lessons for the present.
“The history is not in the past; history is living. [...] It's nothing to be afraid of. I teach the history of the United States of America with all its glory, and all its warts, misery, and happiness, that's what I do,” Alexis said.
Stanek said his approach to teaching history is “to be as objective as you possibly can be and just tell the story using primary resources.”
Olivia agrees with Alexis that students can also make connections between the past and present.
“1898 is a perfect example of how propaganda is powerful. That bias was what was able to bring the public to join the supremacists and have that uprising to replace the government. We still have propaganda in the media; you're changing people's opinions. And that's another thing our project is trying to get across: not every piece of media is accurate,” she said.
Olivia is referring to, in part, the Raleigh News and Observer and Wilmington’s local papers' contribution to the fear of Black residents — and false threats of violence on their behalf. Campaign speeches and political cartoons put out by the Democratic Party were also a factor.
Olivia, Zipporah, and Mr. Stanek are excited to network with fellow students and teachers at next month's national event.
NHCS students and teachers joining Zipporah, Olivia, and Stanek in D.C. for the National History Day Competition will be:
- Hanna Davis, Leo Boersma, Sophia Catino, William King
- New Hanover High School (advisor Chad Goins)
- Senior Group Exhibit, 2nd Place
- Scott McFarland, Isaac Bear Early College High School,
- Senior Paper, 2nd Place
- Abigail Blair, Lyla Varnum
- International School at Gregory (advisor Sarah Stepanski)
- Junior Group Documentary, 2nd Place
