The Wilmington coup was 125 years ago today, the Equal Justice Initiative's excellent Twitter account reminded me. I've written about it a number of times before, but there's always more to know.
This time I learned:
Between 1896 and 1902, the number of Black voters registered in North Carolina fell from 126,000 to 6,100—and Wilmington did not elect another Black candidate until 1972.
That's how racial terrorism works.
The burned-out office of The Daily Record, Wilmington's Black-owned newspaper, on November 10, 1898.
So when you hear that Mississippi — which has the highest proportion of Black residents in the U.S. — once again elected a corrupt white Republican governor, ask yourself why more Black people don't vote there. And even the ones who do try maybe can't get ballots.
Gee, how did that happen?
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Past posts about the Wilmington massacre and coup:
- The Wilmington Massacre (August 2014)
- Wilmington on Fire (September 2016)
- Wilmington and Alfred Waddell (July 2017)
- Wilmington on Criminal (October 2021)
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