1898 coup d'etat

What makes history come alive? When you can see repercussions, for good or for ill, in the present day. It’s why North Carolina state historian LeRae Umfleet, the author of the state’s official report on Wilmington’s 1898 massacre and coup d'état, keeps talking about it.

Black History Month brings a raised awareness of people left out of America’s mainstream historical narrative. It can generate much-needed discussion of current areas of inequality among the races. But so often the burden for leading these explorations lands on the shoulders of our Black teachers, historians, and leaders. Not on this episode. Listen to two white people, Professor Kim Cook and Jim Downey, undertake the work with humility and some inevitable awkwardness.

Most of us know the story – or at least the basics – of the only successful coup d'état in American history. The 1898 Wilmington, NC massacre perpetrated by white supremacists which killed citizens, forced elected officials from office, and drove successful Black professionals out of the city. But documentary filmmaker Christopher Everett, who produced Wilmington On Fire in 2015, is working on Wilmington On Fire Part II. He's telling a new story of Black power, prosperity, and self-reliance fueling a resurgence of a thriving African American population in the port city.

Philip Gerard contended that the unhealed wounds and unresolved issues from the Civil War were a major driver of today’s Great American Divide. His next book idea, Toward a More Perfect Union: Why America Lost the Civil War and How to Win It Now, will remain unwritten. But he offers some of the ideas that would have gone into that book in other places. We take a closer look at his consistency and courage in this remembrance of a rich, well-lived, albeit abbreviated life.

What The River Knows opens on Thalian Hall’s mainstage on November 10th, the 124th anniversary of the 1898 white supremacist massacre. Playwright Alicia Inshiradu has worked on what she calls a "passion project" for more than two decades.

Even though she was born and raised in the Brooklyn section of Wilmington, it took years before Cynthia Brown learned details of the massacre that shattered families, gutted a thriving Black professional class, and caused her great-grandmother, from her deathbed, to grab Cynthia’s wrist and urge her to “run” if it ever happens again.

Even though she was born and raised in the Brooklyn section of Wilmington, it took years before Cynthia Brown learned details of the massacre that shattered families, gutted a thriving Black professional class, and caused her great-grandmother, from her deathbed, to grab Cynthia’s wrist and urge her to “run” if it ever happens again.

Lucy McCauley was well into adulthood — married and raising her daughter — when she discovered her white ancestors had enslaved people. A few years later, she learned her great-grandfather, William Berry McKoy, was a key figure in facilitating the violence that led to a coup d'état in Wilmington, North Carolina in November 1898. What's she doing with that knowledge? How do the actions of her forebears inform her own identity?

Lucy McCauley was well into adulthood — married and raising her daughter — when she discovered her white ancestors had enslaved people. A few years later, she learned her great-grandfather, William Berry McKoy, was a key figure in facilitating the violence that led to a coup d'état in Wilmington, North Carolina in November 1898. What's she doing with that knowledge? How do the actions of her forebears inform her own identity?

More than 120 years after Wilmington's coup d'état targeting Black elected officials and citizens, historians, researchers, and genealogists are still piecing together what the 19th century port city was like, who the victims of 1898 were, and where their surviving family members migrated to rebuild their lives.