Annabelle Crowe

On September 14th, 2018, Hurricane Florence made landfall in Wilmington, NC. WHQR stayed through the storm, holed up in the third floor studios downtown even as the building began to sway from the storm’s heavy winds. 

Almost a year later, after listening to staff members discuss their experience, WHQR’s 2019 summer intern Annabelle Crowe decided to investigate how the WHQR team worked together to weather the storm. 

A dozen or so people, diverse in age, ethnicity, and political leanings, are participating in a year-long experiment in civil discourse.  Each month, we bring you a conversation with members of the group. We’re observing how the tone and quality of the conversation changes over the course of the year, and whether the time participants spend together can forge real connections across political boundaries.

On November 10, 1898, an angry white mob led by prominent Wilmingtonians like Alfred Moore Waddell, Hugh MacRae, George Rountree, and J. Allen Taylor, murdered anywhere from a dozen to 300 people. These white supremacists forcefully removed black politicians from power, and hundreds of black business owners and residents fled in the aftermath.