It's November 10th! It's been exactly 120 years since the 1898 Wilmington Massacre, the only successful coup d'etat on US soil. White conservatives –– Democrats of the time –– before the party platforms switched –– overthrew their local government by sheer armed force. https://twitter.com/_CharlesPreston/status/1061293650217484289

Post-Civil War, Blacks held the majority of Wilmington, NC's electorate. Black aldermen won all wards where Blacks were the majority. The average pro-confederate white didn't want shit to do with the electoral process during Reconstruction, setting up an opportunity for Black ppl

Blacks won office despite intimidation from the Klan –– an arm of the Democratic Party of the time –– and angry Conservatives. Conservatives didn't have the #'s to win elections in Wilmington and there was a growing Fusion movement between Republicans and Populists.

So what did the Democrats do? Create propaganda and waited.
Blacks of the time were protected by Union troops (and I'm using 'protected' lightly) and Black militias of the time. As political power grew, both groups thinned. Democrats saw an opportunity waged offense.

Black dominance in Wilmington started to wane because white North Carolinians were buying into anti-Black propaganda like Black men raping white women. This increased violence against Blacks and empowered the Klan, who were staging direct actions against Blacks and Republicans.

Democrats launched a massive propaganda campaign, fundraised from white businesses that politically aligned with their interests, and waited until the 1898 Wilmington election.

I forgot to mention what else incited more white anger...

A Black editor wrote about anti-lynching

In the 1890s, the Wilmington Daily Record served as Wilmington’s only Black newspaper. Alex Manly, the editor of the Daily Record, penned that Black men weren't raping white women, but in many cases, white women were attracted to Black men. This was in response to Klan propaganda

Alex Manly was making an appeal for Black men being lynched in the midst of white supremacists spreading the "Black man rape white women" propaganda. When he did that, those white boys were pissed. It stirred white supremacists throughout the state.

Alfred M. Waddell, former congressman and the Democratic candidate for mayor, issued an order for white groups to cause havoc on the city. A white mob of 400-500 people marched on the Daily Record office, smashed the press, and burned down the building.

The white groups roamed the city, shooting into Black neighborhoods causing Black people to flee the city. Waddell demanded that the entire city board resign. Aldermen and Mayor Silas P. Wright.

Waddell took over as mayor and appointed White SupremacistDemocratic aldermen.

After successfully overthrowing the government, they looked to disenfranchise the Black vote through policy to maintain power. None of these men went to jail. No federal action took place. Just your regular ol violent overthrow.
No reparations for Blacks.

Many Blacks fled Wilmington. It went from a budding Black metropolis to another white supremacist town in the South.
Many people call it the "1898 Wilmington Race Riot", but it was nothing of a race riot.

It was a white supremacist coup d'état.
The 1898 Wilmington Massacre.

Don't believe me?
Go to this government sponsored website:
https://www.ncdcr.gov/about/history/1898-race-riot

And read this great book pictured: