http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/378598.html

until the 1898 riots

Thoughts?

[Edited on December 18, 2005 at 3:43 PM. Reason : .]

12/18/2005 3:42:51 PM

free tookie

aha

12/18/2005 3:50:03 PM

So you mean f'd up, like Durham and Gary, In.?

12/18/2005 3:51:07 PM

Quote :

"1898 riot designed to disfranchise blacks Wilmington event staged, panel finds Barbara Barrett, Staff Writer The 1898 riot and coup d'etat in Wilmington that killed an unknown number of black residents actually was a planned insurrection that white supremacists spent months organizing. The violence was part of a statewide effort -- with a pivotal role played by The News & Observer and other newspapers -- to put white supremacist Democrats in office and stem the political advances of black citizens, according to a draft report released Thursday by the state-appointed 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission. The incident is the only known violent overthrow of a government in U.S. history. Afterward, white supremacists in state office passed the laws that would disfranchise a race of people for generations -- until the civil rights movement and Voting Rights Act of the 1960s. "Essentially, it crippled a segment of our population that hasn't recovered in 107 years," said Harper Peterson, former mayor of Wilmington and a member of the commission. "It's a major event that went unnoticed." Now, with history fully told, members of the riot commission will turn toward action, perhaps asserting that there must be some atonement. "We want to engage people to come up with creative ways to respond to 106 years of degradation," Peterson said. To make amends, some commission members have suggested financing historical exhibitions about the riot and its consequences, portraying the Wilmington riot in school history texts, and developing economic interests in affected areas. In addition, "some apology by the state for its inaction" is also called for, said Irving Joyner, vice chairman of the commission and a law professor at N.C. Central University. The commission has been ordered to make recommendations to the legislature by May 2006. Whatever calls for action the commission advocates will probably be hotly debated. "I don't want to let the cat out of the bag in terms of proposals," Peterson said. "But they're going to be very specific." The General Assembly established the commission in 2000 in response to a push from two Wilmington legislators. The report is now open for public comment, and Joyner said he wants to hear suggestions about how the community should respond. In its 450-page report, the Wilmington Race Riot Commission describes the riot and accompanying coup d'etat as a watershed moment in North Carolina history. "Because Wilmington rioters were able to murder blacks in daylight and overthrow Republican government without penalty or federal intervention, everyone in the state, regardless of race, knew that the white supremacy campaign was victorious on all fronts," the report says. In 1898, African-American men in North Carolina had been able to vote for some three decades as part of Reconstruction after the Civil War, said Jeffrey Crow, deputy secretary of the N.C. Office of Archives and History, which researched the report. Blacks voted in blocs for the Republican party -- the party of Abraham Lincoln -- and the GOP had formed a coalition state government in Raleigh with the Populist party. In Wilmington, the state's largest city at the time, blacks outnumbered whites and were a force in the Republican city leadership. Democratic leaders, including Josephus Daniels, editor of The News & Observer, were outraged. They developed a campaign to install white supremacist leaders in the General Assembly and U.S. Congress during the 1898 elections. "It's really kind of scary how organized it was," said LeRae Umfleet, a historian with the state Office of Archives and History who authored the report. "Every finger of the Democratic party just reached into every aspect of economic, social and political life at the time." Racist cartoons In The N&O, for example, Daniels published stories about community crime and graft among elected officials in Wilmington. He hired a cartoonist to pen racist images of "Negro Rule," showing white men as victims and white women desperate for help. One cartoon, for example, showed a white woman surrounded by black men at the post office. It was drawn in response to the hiring of African-Americans at the postal service and argued that white women now were afraid to call for their mail. Other papers, including The Charlotte Observer, the Wilmington Star and the Wilmington News, also spread racially divisive propaganda. For months in 1898, white men calling themselves the "Red Shirts" had been riding through the state's southeastern counties, wielding rifles and terrorizing residents. In Wilmington, Democrats fueled an insurrection. They stuffed ballot boxes and threatened black men, but there was no widespread violence on Election Day. Then on Nov. 10, violence broke out when a mob of nearly a thousand white men marched to a black-owned newspaper and set it afire. The editor, Alex Manly, had written an editorial months before suggesting that white women may enjoy the company of black men. Across the street, children at a black school saw the flames and went running scared. Mothers, hearing the commotion, scrambled for their children. Residents ran to the nearby warehouse district to warn the African-American men working there. African-Americans fled the city as the newspaper building burned, with families hiding in swamps and cemeteries for days with no more than the clothing on their backs, Umfleet said. The white mob overthrew the democratically elected city council, whose members weren't supposed to be up for election for months. All black city workers were fired. Leading black figures were forced out of town. Many of the histories in the past century, including an autobiography by Daniels, offered rationalizations for the riot, saying white leaders felt pushed into violence by Manly's editorial, Umfleet said. The new report challenges those accounts. Within a year of the insurrection, the new, Democratic-controlled General Assembly had passed the first Jim Crow law cutting off voting rights to blacks. "It took the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act to get those rights restored," Jeffrey Crow said. And today, he added, every time the Voting Rights Act comes up for renewal in Congress, it's argued. "More than a hundred years later, we're still trying to resolve the issues," Crow said. "It's extremely important that people understand history.""

[Edited on December 18, 2005 at 4:01 PM. Reason : .]

12/18/2005 4:00:49 PM

thoughts?

it was 1898

12/18/2005 7:20:19 PM

i didnt realize atlanta was some kind of pinnacle

12/18/2005 7:29:46 PM

Atlanta :: Wilmington
Micheal Vick :: Trot Nixon

12/18/2005 7:53:45 PM

Quote :

"If we had known it would be this much trouble, we would've never invented gun powder. Sincerely, -Ho chu Ping "

12/18/2005 8:25:39 PM

there's a memorial planned for a site on n. third street.

12/18/2005 9:03:33 PM

My thoughts? We already know that there were a lot of pieces of shit in North Carolina in the past. There are enough left now to be worth shooting, too.

12/18/2005 10:03:04 PM

Remembering it as a part of history, sure. Demanding that white people that did not exist in 1898 apologize to black people that didn't exist in 1898...gimma a freak'n break! Were there severe wrongs committed in the past, yes. However, white guilt, no, I don't take guilt trips anymore, especially when the actions occured between others that are NO LONGER ON THIS PLANET!

12/18/2005 10:32:49 PM

so in 1898, there was a huge amount of urban sprawl in Wilmington?

fascinating

12/18/2005 10:43:07 PM

^ haha yeah i'm trying to figure that one out too

12/18/2005 11:05:27 PM

Where exactly did they get this new information after 100 years?

12/18/2005 11:21:07 PM

Quote :

"In The N&O, for example, Daniels published stories about community crime and graft among elected officials in Wilmington. He hired a cartoonist to pen racist images of "Negro Rule," showing white men as victims and white women desperate for help. One cartoon, for example, showed a white woman surrounded by black men at the post office. It was drawn in response to the hiring of African-Americans at the postal service and argued that white women now were afraid to call for their mail."

wow, the power of cartoons

12/18/2005 11:35:23 PM

If there was a capital of "Black America" it would be Atlanta. (or DC, but thats already the nations capital.

Atlanta has alot of black people. Atlanta has alot of black people active in local politics. Atlanta has alot of black professionals that are doing well in their respective careers. Atlanta has alot of Black owned businesses.

Like Wilimington used to.

12/18/2005 11:45:08 PM

Quote :

"thoughts? it was 1898"

honestly the first thing i read that i really really agreed with

12/19/2005 2:40:03 AM

Quote :

"Atlanta has alot of black people. Atlanta has alot of black people active in local politics. Atlanta has alot of black professionals that are doing well in their respective careers. Atlanta has alot of Black owned businesses."

don't forget about all the crime!

back on topic, that was a very interesting article. i didn't know that about NC history. in a way thought i'm kinda glad it happened. imagine of wilmington was like atlanta.... GOD THAT WOULD SUCK!!

12/19/2005 9:12:50 AM

Quote :

"In Wilmington, Democrats fueled an insurrection. They stuffed ballot boxes and threatened black men, but there was no widespread violence on Election Day. "

12/19/2005 9:24:02 AM

Actually, Wilmington was the black political center and Durham the black cultural and economic center of the state.

Also, the success of Atlanta has had much to do with the partnerships between black political leaders and white business leaders that were forged decades ago. Fortunately Atlanta's political leaders were not determined to be the "black city", but were willing to work across racial lines. It would not have experienced nearly as much economic success without that give and take.

12/19/2005 9:40:56 AM

How did the N & O become liberal?

12/19/2005 10:08:55 AM

^It may have moved to the left when things like voting rights and integration became mainstream.

12/19/2005 10:15:47 AM

Quote :

"If there was a capital of "Black America" it would be Atlanta. (or DC, but thats already the nations capital. Atlanta has alot of black people. Atlanta has alot of black people active in local politics. Atlanta has alot of black professionals that are doing well in their respective careers. Atlanta has alot of Black owned businesses. "

This is why I turned down a lucrative job offer in the ATl....

too many nigs running around smellin' up the place.




gg do they smell bad

12/19/2005 10:22:24 AM

Quote :

"How did the N & O become liberal?"

one of the nat'l papers, i believe usatoday, bought it a few years back.

12/19/2005 10:48:06 AM

durham has black wall street
it also has a lot of black people, black people active in local politics, black professionals, and black owned businesses

but i dont think anyone would ever want to claim being like durham

12/19/2005 12:01:18 PM

durham sucks, atl sucks....wilmington used to suck!

12/19/2005 1:18:16 PM

^

12/19/2005 10:08:35 PM

three cheers for gentrification

12/19/2005 10:11:07 PM

HIP HIP HOORAY!HIP HIP HOORAY!HIP HIP HOORAY!

12/19/2005 10:50:03 PM

You know, I don't think I've made it perfectly clear on the Wolf Web, and if this thread isn't the best place to do it, it's as good as any that's near the top. Or maybe I'm just drunk. Anyway, the following is true, so use it against me if you would:

Ironic as it may seen, most of the reasons I'm Republican and Christian have to do with the extreme to which I hate racists and racism.

When I was around eight or nine years old, a woman named Susan Smith drowned both her kids in a car in South Carolina. That was bad enough. Then she blamed the whole thing on a black guy.

When it became apparent that she had done it, and not a random negro, it was her blatant racism that infuriated me. It was because of that horrific lie that I asked my mom if she would get the death penalty. She said she didn't know, because a lot of people opposed it. Elections came around about that time, so I asked her, "Mommy, which guy running in Greensboro supports the death penalty?" She pointed me to the Republican party via our congressman, Howard Coble. The rest, I suppose, is history.

Since then I've realized that it's not necessarily the government's role to punish people differently based on their beliefs, but I damn sure think it's the job of the people and of God. Anybody in the South Carolina women's prison that shivved Susan Smith would, in my book, be a hero in the same vein (if not on the same level as) John Brown, after whom I hope I get to name my second son (the first being Alexander Hamilton, the only Founding Father to adamantly oppose all racial discrimination).

The point of all that rambling being: I am as confident of few things as I am that all the people unreptentantly involved in the Wilmington coup are roasting in hell. And it is entirely possible that North Carolina and the United States in general will not have made things right until they have purged, through whatever means necessary, any wretches of such abominable schools of thought from their populations.

I apologize for the length and wordiness of this post, but I am in a mood for honesty and, well, wordiness.

12/19/2005 11:17:38 PM

wow, a Christian Republican that hates racism in NC!

/rare

12/20/2005 1:13:44 AM

grumpy, your choices confuse me

12/20/2005 1:18:27 AM

I think that certain (but not all) social programs promulgated by more liberal segments of society merely lead to a new, if more complex, form of slavery. There is a certain extent of slavery to which we voluntarily subjugate ourselves as part of society, but that extent should be minimalized wherever possible.

12/20/2005 2:14:53 AM

my gradfather stepped down from his position in the republican party when he didnt like their use of racial baiting
then the kkk started threatening the family

i guess thats kinda where im coming from

12/20/2005 2:17:53 AM

If I had been alive in the 50s, 60s, or 70s, I would have been a Democrat.

As it is, there isn't enough real racism left in the Republican party to abandon it as a result, and what there is could easily enough be purged by a leader with the balls to purge it.

12/20/2005 2:21:57 AM

So I'm reading Democracy Betrayed: The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and Its Legacy. I'll let y'all know if it's good. It's the "legacy" part that I'm interested in. I'd like to be able to show some folks how things like these are not always "in the past."


^So you don't think it was extremely egregious when Republicans played on invididuals' racist tendencies by push polling South Carolina against McCain?

"If McCain engaged in interracial relations and had a bastard child, how likely would you be to vote for him? Less likely or more likely?"

[Edited on December 25, 2005 at 8:22 PM. Reason : sss]

12/25/2005 8:21:04 PM

ummm. 107 years ago. ITS IN THE PAST, BITCH!

and the democrats don't do the exact same thing, bridget? "GEORGE BUSH HATES BLACK PEOPLE!@!!"

[Edited on December 25, 2005 at 8:57 PM. Reason : ]

12/25/2005 8:56:41 PM

yeah, kanye west
tahts the exact same

12/25/2005 9:02:34 PM

i know. weak analogy. but, it does show how democrats have brainwashed the black populace into actually thinking such a stupid fucking thing, especially when you consider just how many of the black populace agreed with that statement.

12/25/2005 9:11:31 PM

democrats didnt really have to do anything
well they do have to make sure they dont find out that they dont actualyl care

12/25/2005 9:13:42 PM

Grumpy has been the biggest supporter of law and order conservatism on this board as far as I can tell.

So I find his anti-racist stuff to be some combination of absurd, ironic, and hyprocritical.

12/25/2005 9:16:32 PM

Quote :

"So you don't think it was extremely egregious when Republicans played on invididuals' racist tendencies by push polling South Carolina against McCain?"

Yes. Not only because it was abominable, though that would have been enough. I was (am) also a strong McCain supporter.

Quote :

"So I find his anti-racist stuff to be some combination of absurd, ironic, and hyprocritical."

Well, it is and it isn't.

There are some things that the government should do and some things that people should do. Sometimes the government has to do things that the people don't like, such as taxing them. No matter how much you know you benefit from tax-funded projects, you still don't like handing over your checks.

Then agains, sometimes the people have to do something that the government doesn't like, such as protests. Or, possibly, purging society of all the godless racist subhuman filth through bloody pogroms. I'm not quite sure yet.

I also think that what the government can do for the betterment of society (within the bounds of liberty, common sense, etc), it should do. What it can't do, the people must.

12/25/2005 10:14:31 PM

Atlanta has a lot of awful traffic

but you can't really blame black people for that
its mostly crackers from the White-Flight rich-ass suburbs driving their Lexus SUVs on the 2 hour morning commute (55 mile round trip - travel time est. 3.5 hours)

12/26/2005 12:56:02 AM

i'm gonna admit

i'm still not sure what hova meant by the title of this thread

12/26/2005 1:08:35 AM