Report Calls 1898 N.C. Riot an Insurrection [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Report Calls 1898 N.C. Riot an Insurrection

WILMINGTON, N.C., Dec. 19, 2005
(AP) Violence in 1898 that resulted in the only known forceful overthrow of a city government in U.S. history has historically been called a race riot but actually was an insurrection that white supremacists had planned for months, a state commission concludes.

The violence in Wilmington, which resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of black people, "was part of a statewide effort to put white supremacist Democrats in office and stem the political advances of black citizens," the 1898 Wilmington Riot Commission concludes in a draft report.

Afterward, white supremacists in state office passed laws that disfranchised blacks 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, a commission member and former mayor of Wilmington. "It's a major event that went unnoticed."
(snip/...)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/19/ap/national/mainD8EJDIS00.shtml

On edit:

It's good to remember that during the 1960's, the Southern racist Democrats (Dixiecrats) started their migration to the Republican Party. After civil rights legislation and reforms by Democratic Presidents, they bailed out, didn't come back.