1898 Foundation Memorial

Wilmington 1898 Memorial, University Multimedia Center

In 2008, the 1898 Foundation commissioned this memorial. The text inscribed on the marker states:

Wilmington's African American majority included members of a growing middle class who served in the municipal government, the city's civil service, and in state and federal governmental positions. On November 10, 1898, an armed mob of whites led by some of Wilmington's most prominent citizens removed from office the city's duly elected biracial government in what historians consider the only successful coup d' état in the history of the United States.

Panel II

Between 1894 and 1896, a Republican-Populist coalition took control of the state government and several city governments, in part by appealing to African-Americans. Democrats initiated a counterattack in 1898, appealing to white voters' racial fears and portraying Wilmington, then the state's largest city, as an example of the dangers of "Negro rule." The Democratic press depicted African-American males as a threat to "Southern womanhood," a charge denied by Alexander Manly's Record, the state's only daily black newspaper. The day following the elections of November 8, a white mob gathered at the courthouse and adopted the "White Man's Declaration of Independence." It demanded that the city return to an all-white administration, that the Record cease publication, and that Alexander Manly be banished. White leaders presented the "Declaration" to prominent African-Americans, demanding a response within twelve hours. Mailed rather than hand-delivered, their reply arrived too late.

Panel III

On the morning of November 10, a mob of armed whites burned the Record to the ground and then turned its fury and guns on the city's African-American population. At least ten blacks died in the violence, scores more according to African-American oral tradition. Hundreds of men, women, and children fled to surrounding swamps and forests in search of safety, Whites expelled from the city both black and white political and business leaders who were opposed to Democratic rule and white supremacy. The federal government ignored African-American appeals for protection, signaling Democrats throughout the South that it would no longer protect blacks from white violence

Panel IV

Wilmington's 1898 racial violence was not accidental. It began a successful statewide Democratic campaign to regain control of state government, disenfranchise African-Americans, and create a system of legal segregation, which persisted into the second half of the 20th century. This monument serves as a symbol of Wilmington's commitment to an inclusive society, a tribute to all who over the years have struggled to reverse the tragic consequences of the 1898 racial violence, and a memorial to those African-Americans killed in that violence.