Thursday, November 10, 11:30 AM

Fourth and Harnett, New Hanover County Public Library

Blood spilled first in Brooklyn, a mixed- race neighborhood on the edge of a predominantly black section of town. Waterfront workers en route home gathered near Bunje's Saloon at the southwest corner of Fourth and Harnett Streets. Armed whites approached the area on foot or from the streetcar. No one agrees on who fired the first shot, but afterward, whites fired into the crowd at the saloon. Several black men were injured. Three men died instantly. Other African Americans fled, allegedly firing at the whites as they ran. Newspapers reported that three men were injured at Fourth and Harnett and four men were killed. Someone sounded the "riot alarm," a call that alerted the WLI and the Naval Reserves. Walker Taylor, leader of the WLI, declared martial law and the militia proceeded into the Brooklyn neighborhoods. These men came heavily armed. They carried Lee magazine riffles and a Hotchkill rapid fire gun. The WLI included a machine gun squad. Their commander gave them instructions "to shoot to kill." Another five or six black men died and a white man was seriously injured. Violence broke again just east of Fourth and Harnett, at the home of Daniel Wright. (WRRR 133-142).