David Zucchino on the Wilmington Massacre

> LET US TURN TO A LITTLE KNOWN CHAPTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY THAT SPEAKS TO ALL OF THESE ISSUES.

THE CITY OF WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA ONCE STOOD OUT AS A VIBRANT MIXED RACE COMMUNITY.

BUT THAT ALL CAME TO A DRAMATIC END IN 18 NATION WHEN WHITE SUPREMACISTS STAGED A BLOODY COUP, YES, A COUP IN AMERICA.

THE CITY'S DEPOSIT WAS OVERTHROWN AND 60 BLACK MEN WERE KILLED, PULITZER PRIZE WINNER CHRONICLES IT IN HIS NEW BOOK 'WILMINGTON'S LIE.'

HE SAT DOWN TO TALK ABOUT THE OR BEGINS OF THE UPRISING AND IT'S OWE ORIGINS OF THE UPRISING AND ITS LONG LASTING IMPACT.

THIS IS AN AMAZING BOOK.

IT'S ABOUT 18 NA98 AND IT'S ALS ABOUT TODAY.

DESCRIBE WHAT IT WAS IN 18 NATION.

BEFORE THE COUP, WILMINGTON WAS AN OUTLIER, UNIQUE, FIRST OF ALL IT HAD A MAJORITY BLACK POPULATION, 56% BLACK.

NEW ORLEANS WAS 27%. LOUISVILLE WAS 17%. MORE IMPORTANTLY IT HAD A MULTI-RACIAL GOVERNMENT WHICH WAS VERY UNUSUAL AT THE TIME.

YOU HAD BLACK MEN IN POSITIONS OF POWER.

YOU HAD THREE OF THE TEN CITY ALDERMEN WERE BLACK.

TEN OF THE 26 POLICEMEN WERE BLACK.

YOU HAD BLACK MAGISTRATES.

THE SUPERINTENDENT OF STREETS WAS BLACK.

THE COUNTY TREASURER WAS BLACK.

SO THERE WAS THIS REAL SORT OF MEETING OF THE WHITE REPUBLICAN AND BLACK REPUBLICANS SHARING POWER IN A MID-SIZE SOUTHERN TOWN, BIGGEST CITY IN NORTH CAROLINA AT THE TIME.

AN IMPORTANT COMMERCIAL PORT AND THIS JUST DROVE THE WHITE SUPREMACISTS CRAZY, THEY WERE NOT GOING TO STAND WITH IT.

AND THEY PUT IN PLACE A PLAN THAT LASTED FOR SEVERAL MONTHS, LEADING UP TO THE MID-TERM ELECTIONS IN 1898.

BUT EVEN THOSE OTHER PLACES AROUND THE SOUTH, IN THE EARLY 1890s HAVE A LOT OF BLACKS WHO HAVE REGISTERED TO VOTE.

THEY ARE GETTING ELECTORAL POWER.

SO WILMINGTON IS SORT OF A BIG EXAMPLE OF IT.

EXACTLY.

BUT THROUGHOUT THAT PERIOD, WE HADN'T YET HAD THIS BACKLASH, RIGHT?

EXACTLY RIGHT.

AND THERE WERE OTHER TOWNS THAT DID HAVE BLACK OFFICIALS.

BUT I THINK WILMINGTON WHAT'S WAS UNIQUE.

THERE WAS A BAPTIST FOUNDATION THAT CALLED IT THE BIGGEST TOWN FOR NEGRO IN THIS COUNTRY.

THE OTHER THING WAS RESIDENTIALLY IT WAS VERY MIXED.

THERE WAS STILL SEGREGATION IN SOME NEIGHBORHOODS, BUT THERE WERE A LOT OF NEIGHBORHOODS WHERE WHITES AND BLACKS LIVED NEXT TO EACH OTHER, PARTICULARLY THE WORKING CLASS.

SO IT WAS VERY INTERESTING.

BUT AS YOU SAY, THIS WAS GENTLEMAN ON THROUGHOUT THE SOUTH.

-- GOING ON THROUGHOUT THE SOUTH.

AT THE SAME TIME IT SENSED THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION, THEY HAD BEEN WORKING HARD TO TAMP DOWN THE BLACK VOTE.

TO CRUSH THE BLACK VOTE, TO TERRORIZE BLACKS AS YOU KNOW THEY CALLED THEMSELVES THE REDEEMER.

THEY WERE REDEEMING THE SOUTH FOR WHITE SUPREMACY.

WHY DID THAT HAPPEN IN THE 1890s?

IN THE E1890s, THERE WAS A TERRIBLE RECESSION AND POOR WHITE FARMERS WHO LONGED TO THE POPULIST PARTY BECAME DISSATISFIED WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, WHICH AS YOU KNOW AND OUR LISTENERS KNOW WAS THE PARTY OF WHITE SUPREMACY AT THAT TIME.

AND THEY ABANDONED THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND WENT OVER TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, THE PARTY OF LINCOLN AND THE PARTY OF BLACK SUFFRAGE AND THEY COMBINED IN SOMETHING CALLED FUSION.

AND BY 1894 WITH THE BLACKS WORKING WORK WORKING TOKE WITH BLACK REPUBLICANS AND WHITE REPUBLICANS TOOK OVER THE STATE LEGISLATURE.

THE NEXT YEAR THEY TOOK OVER THE CITY GOVERNMENT IN WILMINGTON.

THIS WAS TRULY UNUSUAL IN THE SOUTH AND AS I SAID THE WHITE SUPREMACISTS WEREN'T GOING TO STAND FOR THAT THEY VOWED TO WIN IN 18 MAK98 BY THE BALLOT OR BU.

THEY ANNOUNCED IT.

HOW DID IT BEGIN IN WILMINGTON?

IT BEGAN IN THE SPRING OF 1898, A MAN THE FOUNDER OF RALEIGH THE CAPITAL BY FAR THE MOST IMPORTANT INFLUENTIAL PAPER IN THE STATE MET WITH THE HEAD OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THEY SAID QUOTE NEGRO RULE IS GOING TO DESTROY US.

OUR BIGGEST THREAT IS THE BLACK VOTER.

PARTICULARLY IN EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA AND SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA.

THERE WERE 18 COUNTIES THAT HAVE BLACK MAJORITIES, INCLUDING WILMINGTON, THEY CALLED AT THIS TIME BLACK BELT.

THIS IS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO WHITE SUPREMACY.

SO THEY CAME ONE A PLAN.

THEY CALLED AT THIS TIME WHITE SUPREMACY CAMPAIGN.

THEY TITLED IT THAT.

THEIR PLAN WAS TO CONVINCE WHITE VOTERS THAT, FIRST OF ALL, BLACKS WERE INCOMPETENT, INCAPABLE OF VOTING A AND THE BLACKS IN GOVERNMENT WERE TOTALLY CORRUPT.

THE GOVERNMENT WAS TOTALLY CORRUPT.

AND AT THE SAME TIME THEY PRESENTED BLACKS AS SEXUALLY INSATIABLE.

THEY WERE COMING AFTER THE WHITE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH.

THEY WERE GOING TO RAPE YOUR WOMEN AND THEY WERE GOING TO TAKE YOUR JOBS.

SO THEY STARTED THIS CAMPAIGN THROUGH THE SPRING AND THE SUMMER AND THE FALL LEADING UP TO THE MID-TERM ELECTIONS IN THE FALL TO CONVINCE WHITE VOTERS, PARTICULARLY THE POP POPULOUS THAT IT WOULD LEAD TO RACE MIXING, THE WHITE RACE WOULD BE DESTROYED, YOU POWER WOULD BE GONE, THE BLACKS WOULD TAKE OVER.

IT WASN'T JUST A PROPAGANDA GAIN I COMPANY AGAINST BLACKS.

THEY DECIDED TO MAKE IT AN ARMED MILITIA AGAINST BLACKS?

RIGHT.

IN ADDITION TO HAVING THIS FAKE NEWS CAMPAIGN AND THIS PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN, THEY HAD THEIR OWN MILITIA.

THEY WERE CALLED RED SHIRT.

IN EFFECT IT WAS THE CLAN.

YOU HAD EXTREMELY WELL ARMED WHITE POPULISTS AT THE SAME TIME THEY REFUSED TO SELL AMMUNITION OR WEAPONS TO BLACKS.

SO THERE WAS NO WAY FOR BLACKS TO DEFEND THEMSELVES.

AND IN ADDITION, THEY HAD THIS RED SHIRT MILITIA AND THEIR JOB WAS TO RIDE OUT TO THE COUNTRYSIDE AT NIGHT, BARGE INTO THE BLACK HOMES, PULL THE MEN OUT, WHIP THEM, BEAT THEM, INTIMIDATE THEM AND SAY IF YOU DARE TO REGISTER TO VOTE, WE'RE GOING TO COME BACK AND KILL YOU.

SO HOW MANY BLACKS WERE REGISTERED TO VOTE?

AH, IN 1896 IN THE WHOLE STATE THERE WERE 126,000.

BY 1902 SIX YEARS LATER THERE WERE 6,000.

UP CAN SEE HOW EFFECTIVE THIS WAS.

OPEN ELECTION DAY IN NOVEMBER OF 1898, SOME BLACKS DID, THEY WORKED UP THE COURAGE AND TRIED TO GET TO THE POLLS.

THE RED SHIRTS WERE OUT THERE INTIMIDATING THEM, STOPPING THEM, BEETLEINATING THEM.

A LOT GOT THROUGH AND MANAGED TO VOTE.

A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE REGISTERED VOTERS WERE ABLE TO VOTE ON THAT DAY AND AT THE SAME TIME THE RED SHIRTS BARGED INTO POLLING PLACES AND STUFFED PHONY DEMOCRATIC BALLOTS AND DESTROYED THE REPUBLICAN BALLOTS, AND YOU ENDED UP WITH SITUATIONS IN PRECINCTS WHERE THE CANDIDATE WON BY MORE VOTE THAN THE TOTAL NUMBER OF REGISTERED PEOPLE IN THE DISTRICT.

SO THEY WON THE ELECTION BY FRAUD AND BY INTIMIDATION.

BUT THEY ALSO WERE VERY WELL ARMED AND THEY WERE PLANNING TO AND DID USE VIOLENCE?

ABSOLUTELY, IN ADDITION TO THE PRIVATE MILITIA, THEY HAD TWO STATE MILITIAS.

THEY WERE THE WILMINGTON LIGHT INFANTRY AND THE CITY NAVAL RESERVES.

THESE WERE BASICALLY THE NATIONAL GUARD OF THE DAY.

THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO REPORT IN RALEIGH.

IN FACT.

THEY REPORTED TO THE LEADERS OF THE WHITE SUPREMACY MOVEMENT.

THE COLONEL WAS A MEMBER OF ONE OF THE SECRET COMMITTEES OF WHITE SUPREMACISTS PLANNING THE INSURRECTION.

EVERY MEMBER OF BOTH THESE MILITIAS WERE WHITE SUPREMACISTS.

YOU HAVE A BRUTAL PASSAGE IN YOUR BOOK.

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE COUP OR THE WAR.

RIGHT.

AND WHAT HE SAID.

DOCUMENT RDO YOU MIND READING I?

.

THIS IS COLONEL ALFRED MOORE WADELL.

HE WAS A FORMER CONFEDERATOSIS.

HE -- CONFEDERATE OFFICER, A FORMAL CONGRESSMAN.

HE WAS LEADING THE RED SHIRTS.

THIS WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION.

THIS WAS A SPEECH HE GAVE TO THE RED SHIRT.

QUOTE, MEN, THE CRISIS IS UPON US.

YOU MUST DO YOUR DUTY.

THIS CITY COUNTY AND STATE SHALL BE RID OF NEGRO DOMINATION ONCE AND FOREVER.

HAVE YOU THE COURAGE.

YOU ARE BRAVE YOU ARE THE SONS OF NOBLE ANCESTRY.

YOU ARE ANYTHING RO SAXENS.

YOU ARE -- ANGELO SAXENS.

GO TO THE POLL TOMORROW, IF YOU FIND THE NEGRO OUT VOTING TELL HIM TO LEAVE THE POLLS, IF HE REFUSES CHILL HIM, SHOOT HIM DOWN IN HIS TRACKS.

SHOOT HIM DOWN IN HIS TRACKS.

FROM THE BEGINNING, THIS WAS NOT JUST INTIMIDATION.

THIS WAS ACTUAL MURDER BEING PLANNED?

THIS WAS A PLANNED MURDER SPREE.

A STATE COMMISSION IN 2006 HAD SPENT FIVE YEARS LOOKING INTO THIS AND THEY ESTIMATED THAT AT LEAST 60 BLACK MEN WERE KILLED THAT DAY.

AND DOZENS MORE WERE WOUNDED.

HUNDREDS OF THESE FAMILIES FLED, THEY WERE TERRIFIED AND THEY WENT INTO THE WOOD INTO A BLACK CEMETERY THINKING THE WHITE DEPOSIT WOULDN'T GO THERE.

THEY WENT INTO THE SWAMP ITS AN HID FOR TWO NIGHTS AND THREE DAYS.

IT WAS NOVEMBER, IT WAS COLD.

IT HAPPENED TO BE RAINING.

THERE WERE REPORTS SOME BABIES DIED OF EXPOSURE.

THEY WERE SO TERRIFIED IT TOOK THEM THREE DAYS FOR COLONEL WADELL, THE IRONY IS AFTER THE COUP, THE VIOLENCE, HE STARTS ISSUES PROGRESS LA MAKES SAYING, WOW, WE -- PROCLAMATIONS, WOW, WE WANT LAW AND ORDER.

HE SENT EMISSARIES OUT TO CONVINCE THESE BLACK FAMILIES.

OH, IT'S FINE, IT'S SAFE.

YOU CAN COME BACK.

AS SOON AS THEY CAME BACK, FAMILIES STARTED FLEEING WILMINGTON, 2,100 IN THE WEEKS AND THE MONTHS AFTER THE COUP FLED THE CITY AND NEFF VER CAME BACK.

THE CITY WAS 56% BLACK AS I SAID IN 1898, TODAY IT'S 18% SO THEY TURNED A BLACK MAJORITY CITY OVERNIGHT INTO THIS WHITE SUPREMACIST CITADEL.

PRESIDENT McKINLEY KNEW ABOUT THIS?

ABSOLUTELY.

THEY WARNED ABOUT IT.

THERE WAS A MAN GEORGE HENRY WHITE, WHO WAS A CONGRESSMAN A BLACK MAN FROM NORTH CAROLINA WAS THE ONLY CONGRESSMAN, THE ONLY BLACK CONGRESSMAN IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY.

HE WAS FROM SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA IN A DISTRICT RIGHT NEXT TO WOMENINGSON.

HE WENT TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND MET WITH McKINLEY AND WARNED HIM.

BECAUSE AS I SAID, THEY ANNOUNCED AHEAD OF TIME THEY WERE GOING TO DO THIS EVERYONE KNEW ABOUT IT.

IT WAS COVERED BY AUTOMATIC MAALL THE MAJOR PAPERS OF THE DAY.

CONGRESSMAN WHITE WENT AND WARNED HIM.

AND PLAQUEMINESSTERS BLACK MIN WENT AND WARNED HIM.

THEY TALKED TO HIM AGAIN.

I CAN FIND NO RECORD THAT Mc McKINNLEY EVER UTTERED ONE WORD IN PUBLIC ABOUT THE MASSACRE.

AMONG THE HEROES IN YOUR BOOK IS A MIXED RACE MAN WHO I GUESS WAS TRYING TO KEEP THIS FROM HAPPENING.

HE WAS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER IN THE BOOK.

AS A JOURNALIST I FELL IN LOVE WITH HIM, ALEX MANLY.

HE WAS ACTUALLY THE GRANDSON OF A WHITE NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR AND THE SON OF A SLAVE.

HE STARTED A DAILY NEWSPAPER CALLED THE DAILY RECORD IN KILK WILMINGTON, HE WAS AFTERNOON ADVOCATE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS.

HE DEMANDED THE COUNTRY LIVE UP TO ITS PROMISES TO ITS BLACK CITIZENS.

HE WROTE EXPOSES.

HE GOT IMPROVEMENTS IN ROAD CONDITIONS IN BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS, SANITARY CONDITIONS IN BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS.

HE WROTE AN EXPOSE ON THE SO-CALLED COLOR WARD AT THE CITY HOSPITAL AND GOT JUDGING IMPROVE.

S FROM THE WHITES WHO RAN IT.

IN AUGUST OF 1898, HE RESPONDED TO A SPEECH BY A WOMAN NAMED MRS. FELTON THE GEORGIA WHO WAS THE WIFE OF A PROMINENT POLITICIAN.

SHE GAVE A STERN SPEECH IN GEORGIA ABOUT LYNCHING AND ABOUT ALLEGED RAPES OF WHITE WOMEN BY BLACK MEN AND IN SPEECH, SHE SAID THE SOLUTION TO AT LEAST RAPES IS THE LYNCH ROPE I SAY LYNCH A THOUSAND TIMES WEEK, IF NECESSARY.

ALEX MANLY READ THIS, THE VERY NEXT DAY, HE WROTE A RESPONSE.

AND IN HIS EDITORIAL, IT WAS AN INCREDIBLY BRAVE THING FOR A BLACK MAN TO DO AT THAT TIME WITH THE WHITE SUPREMACY MOVEMENT IN NUMBER SWING.

HE WROTE THAT SUPPOSED RAPES BY BLACK MEN OF WHITE WOMEN WHERE IN MANY CASES THE MEN WERE ACTUALLY THE KCONSENSUAL LOVERS OF THE WHITE WOMEN AND BLACK MEN WERE ATTRACTABLE TO WHITE WOMEN AND WHITES WERE HYPOCRITES BECAUSE WHITE MEN WOULD RAPE BLACK WOMEN WITH IMPUNITY.

IT HAPPENED ALL THE TIME AND ELSEWHERE.

HE HAD THE COURAGE TO POINT THIS OUT.

AS YOU CAN IMAGINE, THIS DID NOT GO OVER WELL AND, IN FACT, THIS WAS REPRINTED ACROSS THE SOUTH AND PEOPLE WERE ENRAGED.

THE RED SHIRTS, THE NEXT DAY, WANTED TO LYNCH ALEX MANLY AND TO SHOW YOU HOW CALCULATED THIS WHOLE PLOT WAS, THEY WERE ORDERED BY THE LEADERS OF THE WHITE SUPREMACY MOVEMENT, NO, WAIT, WE'LL HAVE GREATER POLITICAL IMPACT IF WE WAIT UNTIL THE ELECTION IN NOVEMBER AND THEN YOU CAN LYNCH ALEX MANLY.

THAT WILL BE FINE.

FOR NOW WE WILL LET THIS SIMMER AND LET IT STIR AND WE'LL MAKE USE OF IT IN NOVEMBER.

AND HE WAS WARNED ABOUT THE LYNCH, WHAT HE KNEW THE LYNCH PARTY WAS COMING FOR HIM.

HE GOT OUT OF TIME JUST IN TIME.

HE FLED AND NEVER WENT BACK.

IT AM RLMOST RAISES A COUNTE HISTORY, IF THIS KIND OF THING HADN'T HAPPENED AND WE HASN'T HAD THIS 1890s WHITE SUPREME CYST BACKLASH, WOULD THIS WHOLE NATION BE DIFFERENT?

POSSIBLY.

YOU HAVE TO WONDER, WOULD WILMINGTON HAVE GONE ON AND BEEN THIS BLACK MECCA?

WOULD YOU HAVE HAD THESE 18 COUNTIES ELECTING BLACK PEOPLE TO CONGRESS?

IN 1,900 GEORGE HENRY WHITE, THE CONGRESSMAN WAS JUST HOUNDED OUT OF THE STATE.

HE REFUSED TO RUN FOR RE-ELECTION.

HE KNEW IT WAS TOO DANGEROUS.

HIS PARTING WORDS TO THE 'NEW YORK TIMES' WERE, I CANNOT LIVE IF NORTH CAROLINA AND BE TREATED LIKE A MAN.

HE LEFT AND NEVER CAME BACK.

FROM THAT DAY ON, NO BLACK CITIZEN SERVED IN CONGRESS UNTIL 1992.

ALMOST 100 YEARS LATER.

THE WILMINGTON MASSACRE ISN'T REALLY NONE TO HISTORY THAT WELL.

BECAUSE IT GETS WRITTEN UP IN THE 1920s, '30s AND '40s WITH A WHOLE DIFFERENT ANGLE.

ABSOLUTELY.

THE CLICHE IS THAT THE VICTORS WRITE HISTORY.

THEY WROTE HISTORY.

THEY WERE PROUD, THEY BOASTED ABOUT IT IN LETTERS, DIARIES AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES, BUT THEY PORTRAYED IT AS A VICTORY FOR GOOD, CLEAN GOVERNMENT BY WHITE MEN OVER THIS CORRUPT AND INCOMPETENT QUOTE BLACK RULE AND THEY ALSO, ALL THAT SUMMER AND FALL HAD BEEN PLANNING NEWSPAPER STORIES THAT IT WASN'T THE WHITES WHO WORRIED ABOUT PILING WEAPONS, IT WAS THE BLACK AND ON ELECTION DAY, THE BLACKS WERE GOING TO RISE UP WITH THEIR WEAPONS AND TAKE OVER THE TOWN AND START A RIOT.

SO THE HISTORY THEY WROTE WAS WE, UNFORTUNATE LILY, HAD TO KIA FEW BLACK PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY WERE ARMED AND HAD TO START A RIOT.

THAT'S ONE REASON I WANTED TO WRITE THIS BOOK IS TO CORRECT THE HISTORICAL RECORD.

THIS STORY IS KNOWN, OBVIOUSLY, IN NORTH CAROLINA, BUT NOT THAT MANY PEOPLE, I RUN INTO PEOPLE ALL OVER NORTH CAROLINA WHO SAID I'VE NEVER HEARD OF THIS.

WHEN I GO AROUND THE COUNTRY, I CAN'T FIND ANYBODY WHO HAS EVER HEARD OF THIS.

THE WRITING OF THIS HISTORY BEGINS TO CHANGE, THOUGH, AS THE CENTENNIAL APPROACHES IN 1998.

RIGHT?

RIGHT.

IN 1998, THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA WILMINGTON SAID, LISTEN, THIS HISTORY HAS BEEN COVERED UP.

IT'S BEEN MISCHARACTERIZED.

LET'S BRING THE BLACKS AND THE WHITES TOGETHER, INCLUDING SOME OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THE PEOPLE INVOLVED AND LET'S TRY TO HAVE RACIAL HEALING.

LET'S ADDRESS THIS THING AND TELL THE STORY.

SO I THINK THERE WAS SOME RACIAL HEALING.

BUT IT WAS VERY PAINFUL.

THERE WERE A LOT OF WHITES AT THE TIME WHO SAID WHY ARE WE DREDGING THIS UP?

THIS IS ANCIENT HISTORY.

ARE YOU STIRRING UP RACIAL TROUBLE.

THIS IS OVER.

LET'S MOVE ON.

AT THE SAME TIME AS YOU CAN IMAGINE, BLACKS FELT THIS VERY DEEPLY.

THIS WAS 100 YEARS LATER, BUT THEIR FAMILIES HAD BEEN DESTROYED.

THEIR LIVES HAD BEEN DESTROYED.

THEIR FAMILIES WERE SCATTERED ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

THE BLACK MIDDLE CLASS WAS DESTROYED.

THEY FELT THIS VERY DEEPLY.

THERE WERE REPARATIONS AND A BLOW BACK FROM THE WHITES THAT SAID WE'LL NEVER PAY REPARATIONS.

I THINK IN THE END, THEY HAVE RECONCILIATIONS.

GREAT TO BE WITH YOU ALL.