The Significance of LeRae's Visit and the Impact of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

This chapter discusses the rare visit of LeRae, an influential historian on Wilmington 1898, and the competing narratives surrounding the event. It also highlights the push to create a commission and the efforts of Wilmington's black lawmakers to raise awareness of the event.

By 1898, two decades after the end of Reconstruction, white elites, backed by violent terror groups, have installed Jim Crow across most of the South. North Carolina, led by its largest city, Wilmington, is different. A Fusion coalition, made up of mostly-Black Republicans and mostly-White members of the Populist Party, controls the city and state governments. White supremacist Democrats are frustrated and plot to gain power by any means necessary.

By Michael A. Betts, II, and John Biewen. Interviews with LeRae Umfleet, David Cecelski, and Cedric Harrison. The series story editor is Loretta Williams. Music in this episode by Kieran Haile, Blue Dot Sessions, Okaya, Jameson Nathan Jones, and Lucas Biewen. Art by Zaire McPhearson. “Echoes of a Coup” is an initiative of America’s Hallowed Ground, a project of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.