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Wilmington massacre of 1898

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A white mob poses for a photograph in front of the charred remains of the Daily Record building they burned.

Majority-Black Wilmington, N.C., Fell to White Mob’s Coup 125 Years Ago

The 1898 Wilmington massacre overthrew the elected government in the majority-Black city, killed many Black residents and torched a Black-run newspaper.
by DeNeen L. Brown via Retropolis on November 10, 2023
Wilmington coup marker

We’ve Had a White Supremacist Coup Before. History Buried It.

The 1898 Wilmington insurrection showed “how people could get murdered in the streets and no one held accountable for it.”
by Edwin Rios via Mother Jones on January 22, 2021

An American Pogrom

Uncovering the truth about the 1898 massacre of black voters in Wilmington, North Carolina.
by David W. Blight via New York Review of Books on October 30, 2020
Donald Trump at a rally
partner

Trump’s Rhetoric About the Election Channels a Dark Episode From Our Past

The only coup in American history came after scare-mongering that wouldn't sound out of place in 2020.
by David Gessner via Made By History on October 22, 2020
Illustration of a mob of white men burning down a building.

What a White-Supremacist Coup Looks Like

In Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898, the victory of racial prejudice over democratic principle and the rule of law was unnervingly complete.
by Caleb Crain via The New Yorker on April 20, 2020

By Bullet or Ballot: One of the Only Successful Coups in American History

David Zucchino on the white supremacist plot to take over Wilmington, North Carolina.
by David Zucchino via Literary Hub on January 9, 2020
Protest sign reading "We never left Jim Crow."

Voter Fraud Propagandists Are Recycling Jim Crow Rhetoric

The conservative plot to suppress the Black vote has relied on racist caricatures, then and now.
by Nick Tabor via The New Republic on February 4, 2022
Anto-CRT protestors at the Pennsylvania state Capitol.

Teaching (amid a) White Backlash

A brief scholarly overview to understand the contours of white backlashes, their historical impact, and the ways they shape the world we inherit.
by William Horne via Clio and the Contemporary on January 12, 2022
Artistic rendering of a sheet of newspaper with people crossed out, flowing above people working menial jobs whose heads are also crossed out, working next to signs that read "Sorry."

On Atonement

News outlets have apologized for past racism. That should only be the start.
by Alexandria Neason via Columbia Journalism Review on January 28, 2021
Different colored pillars

The Capitol Riot Was an Attack on Multiracial Democracy

True democracy in America is a young, fragile experiment that must be defended if it is to endure.
by Adam Serwer via The Atlantic on January 7, 2021

Rhiannon Giddens and What Folk Music Means

The roots musician is inspired by the evolving legacy of the black string band.
by John Jeremiah Sullivan via The New Yorker on May 13, 2019

'Segregation Had to Be Invented'

During the late 19th century, blacks and whites in the South lived closer together than they do today.
by Alana Semuels via The Atlantic on February 17, 2017

Mildred Rutherford’s War

The “historian general” of the United Daughters of the Confederacy began the battle over the depiction of the South in history textbooks that continues today.
by Adam Hochschild via New York Review of Books on November 16, 2023
Painting by Beauford Delaney featuring white outlines of people in front of a red, yellow, orange, and white patterned background.

In Old Wilmington

How the failed search for a silent film uncovered a lost musician of the Harlem Renaissance.
by John Jeremiah Sullivan via Oxford American on September 5, 2023
Ferris wheel at the Chicago World Fair of 1893.

The Magic Lantern Man

At every stop, he enthralled audiences with a device called a “stereopticon.”
by David Cecelski via David Cecelski.com on May 1, 2023
Charles Chesnutt portrait

The Atlantic Writers Project: Charles Chesnutt

A contemporary Atlantic writer reflects on one of the voices from the magazine's archives who helped shape the publication—and the nation.
by Imani Perry via The Atlantic on July 11, 2022
People holding union and BLM signs out of their car windows, taking part in the Workers First Caravan for Racial and Economic Justice, June 17, 2020, with the US capitol in the background.
partner

How Conservatives Drove a Wedge Between Economic and Cultural Liberals

Elites understood that a unified left spelled doom for their economic advantages.
by Jonathan Schlefer via Made By History on June 14, 2022
Illustration of Spanish slaves unloading ice.

Cuba & the US: Necessary Mirrors

Exponentially more enslaved Africans were forced to the lands that now make up Latin America rather than the United States. Where is their story?
by Geraldo Cadava via Public Books on April 13, 2022
Black man and Black woman riding bikes on a suburban street.
partner

American Cycling Has a Racism Problem

How racism has shaped the history — and present — of bicycle use.
by Nathan Cardon via Made By History on November 16, 2021
Marjorie Taylor Greene
partner

Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Just the Latest Radical White Woman Poisoning Politics

Such women have long pushed American politics to the right, and their ideas have become mainstream.
by Elizabeth Gillespie McRae via Made By History on February 6, 2021
An illustration of Black men pulling a platform covered in trash and American symbols.

What Price Wholeness?

A new proposal for reparations for slavery raises three critical questions: How much does America owe? Where will the money come from? And who gets paid?
by Shennette Garrett-Scott via New York Review of Books on January 18, 2021
A crowd of people with one person waving the Confederate flag

Learning from the Failure of Reconstruction

The storming of the Capitol was an expression of the antidemocratic strands in American history.
by Eric Foner, Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on January 13, 2021
Person walking with Confederate flag inside of the U.S. Capitol

The Capitol Riot Reveals the Dangers From the Enemy Within

But the belief that America previously had a well-functioning democracy is an illusion.
by Eric Foner via The Nation on January 8, 2021
Man with a pistol at his hip carries the retired flag of Mississippi with a confederate battle emblem in it, and a Trump 2020 flag.
partner

Yes, Wednesday’s Attempted Insurrection Is Who We Are

While Wednesday's images shocked us, they fit into our history.
by Gregory P. Downs, Kate Masur via Made By History on January 8, 2021
People holding protest signs

On the Fight for Black Voting Rights at the Turn of the 20th-Century

A rally at Faneuil Hall in support of the Fourteenth Amendment and congressional investigation of southern disfranchisement.
by Kerri K. Greenidge via Literary Hub on October 14, 2020

Maligned in Black and White

Southern newspapers played a major role in racial violence. Do they owe their communities an apology?
by Mark I. Pinsky via Poynter on May 8, 2019

White Supremacy Is the Achilles Heel of American Democracy

Even in a high-tech era, fears about minority political agency are the most reliable way to destabilize the U.S. political system.
by Vann R. Newkirk II via The Atlantic on April 17, 2018

The Soul of W. E. B. Du Bois

Reflecting on the tremendous impact of "The Souls of Black Folk," on the 150th anniversary of Du Bois' birth.
by Ibram X. Kendi via The Paris Review on February 14, 2018

Killing Reconstruction

During Reconstruction, elites used racist appeals to silence calls for redistribution and worker empowerment.
by Heather Cox Richardson via Jacobin on August 19, 2015

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