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How the Only Successful Coup D'Etat in US History Was Carried Out
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Jun 3, 2025
After Black voters helped elevate Black politicians to power in US politics, tensions over race started to flare up. Black men were called various disrespectful terms, and messages were put out in the media that stoked fear and guilt. In 1898, white citizens seized control of the government in North Carolina, and initiated the only successful American coup, by overthrowing the elected government in Wilmington, NC.
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The American Civil War ended in 1865, and the subsequent years of Reconstruction saw the establishment of property ownership, citizenship, and legal equality for black Americans
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With these achievements, black citizens began to participate in the election and running of the governments that served them
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But this was a big problem for white supremacists and some who wanted to keep political power
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In 1898, politics and racism joined forces to launch the only successful coup d'etat in U.S. history, and they brazenly did it in the open
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Today, we're going to take a look at how white supremacists in North Carolina carried out America's only successful coup d'etat
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Okay, a push from the left and a shove from the right. That's all planned up. We'll do it tonight
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Coup d'etat, coup d'etat, coup d'etat. The Civil War left much of the southern United States
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in shambles. The Reconstruction era would see the country try to rebuild the South in a way that would give former slaves
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a place in society. But not everyone liked where things were headed
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In 1894, the Democratic Party had lost a 20-year hold on local, state, and federal positions
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This was due in part to the success of the Populist Party, which appealed to poor white farmers
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and the Republican Party, the preferred party of free black citizens. These two factions, cooperating while their goals aligned
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created what was called fusionism. Their success, aided by black voter turnout of nearly 80
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in the 1890s, sparked a harsh backlash. The state's Democratic Party began what they openly called
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a white supremacist campaign to split the alliance of blacks and whites
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It was as horrible as it sounds. It involved politicians, the press
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and a sympathetic portion of the public. Oh, and it also involved guns. The campaign was concocted by two influential men, Josephus Daniels, publisher of the state's
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most influential paper, the Raleigh News and Observer, and Furnifold Simmons, chairman of
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the state's Democratic Party. Democrats knew that fostering racial fear and exploiting existing distrust between races
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was a tool they could use to split their opposition, the populists and Republicans
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and take power. They began a program to intimidate blacks from voting and convince whites they were under threat
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and voting Democrat was their best option. Their approaches were not subtle. Just weeks before the
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election of 1898, Raleigh's News and Observer published a political cartoon entitled The Vampire
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That Hovers Over North Carolina. The cartoon depicted a black person as a monstrous vampire
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chasing a group of fleeing white people. The phrase Negro rule was written across the vampire's wings
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Those words really weren't necessary. Such dramatic images were enough to support their skewed point of view and emotionally
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sway those who could not read, which was approximately 20% of the state's population
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According to Reverend J. Allen Kirk, a black witness to the events in Wilmington
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the threat of white subservience was commonly used to inspire fear. He recalled political campaigners promoting rumors about the eastern part of the state
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being ruled by black overlords. Threats of powerlessness, subjugation, and violence were used to drive a wedge between races and drive votes to a political party
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Contrasting with its statewide messaging of racial divide was Wilmington, one of North Carolina's largest and most racially integrated cities
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Its population was just over 20 of which about 55 were black Over three decades after emancipation the community was prospering Black businesses thrived in the area
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Over 1,000 black citizens owned property in the city. It was home of one of the nation's few black daily newspapers
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The Daily Record. Black citizens held positions of power, including councilmen, detectives, clerks, magistrates
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and other elected officials. It even had a loan association and a union
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to help former slaves. Black residents of Wilmington could vote and took that right seriously
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Despite an organized voter intimidation campaign leading up to the election of 1898
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more black residents of Wilmington registered to vote than white. That intimidation campaign involved more than just the ink in newspapers
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On August 11, 1897, Rebecca Felton gave a speech at the Georgia Agricultural Society
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Felton was an industrious woman and known as a speaker, writer, feminist, prison reformer
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suffragette, educational advocate, politician, wife of independent Democratic congressman William Felton, and slave owner and unabashed white supremacist. Hmm, she sounded pretty cool until
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those two. You have to read the resume all the way to the end, don't you? Felton declared that women
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on farms faced many dangers, which was true, but claimed no threat was greater than that of the
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black rapist, which was not true. She went on to declare that if the state's white men and their
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institutions could not protect women, she had the solution. The answer to her imagined crisis
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If it needs lynching to protect women's dearest possession from the ravening human beasts
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then I say lynch a thousand times a week if necessary. In Wilmington, Alex Manley
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the owner and editor of the Daily Record newspaper, responded to Felton's rantings
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with rantings of his own in an editorial. Manley was a polarizing voice, and many black leaders at
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the local and state level, distanced themselves from him, feeling his tactics were anti-productive
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Manly didn't pull any punches on old Becca Felton. He lands his most solid jab with
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if the papers and speakers of the other race would condemn the commission of crime because
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it is crime and not try to make it appear that the Negroes were the only criminals
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they would find their strongest allies in the intelligent Negroes themselves, and together the whites and blacks would root the evil out of both races
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White supremacists, not known for metered circumspection, declared his editorial an attack on white Christian womanhood
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Well, that escalated fast. The Democratic Party had few qualms about exploiting race to win elections
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and Felton's speech was a tame part of their campaign. They found that fear and guilt were potent persuaders
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and they used that combination throughout the state leading up to the elections of 1898
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In the fall, the Wilmington Messenger, a paper loyal to the Democratic Party
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ran an editorial declaring that the white men of North Carolina must choose a side and that their choice
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was a matter of race, not politics. This accusation that a person is a traitor to their race
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if they don't vote for a particular party was captured with a derogatory label, Scalawag
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It was a slur that began early in Reconstruction and originally referred to low-grade farm animals
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I didn't know farm animals had status. Similar points of view were echoed in allied papers
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such as the Charlotte Observer, Wilmington Morning Star, New Bern Journal, Winston Journal, the Goldsboro Argus
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and of course, the Raleigh News and Observer. The repetition of similar opinions in the media
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created the appearance that these beliefs were not only righteous but those of the majority which is a way of making itself true If vitriol in newspapers speeches and cartoons weren enough there was the threat of physical
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violence. The red shirts originated decades earlier as a bunch of guys who wore, as you might guess
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red shirts to show unity and power for both the Democratic Party and white supremacy
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But bad fashion turned just plain bad as the group quickly shifted gears from solidarity
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to intimidation to threats to physical violence that was levied upon those who dared
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act against their cause, even if that act was simply registering to vote
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Whether parades, torchlight processions, raids, whippings, or marauding through black neighborhoods on horseback
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the sight of the red shirts was described as a terrifying spectacle
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In response, the Republican governor of North Carolina, Daniel Lindsay Russell, made a proclamation in late October to all ill-disposed persons
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whether of this or that political party or of no political party, to immediately desist from all
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unlawful practices and turbulent conduct and preserve the peace and to secure all the people
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the quiet enjoyment of all their rights of free citizenship. But he didn't just call on mean people
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to stop being mean. He had a message for the public, for all good and law-abiding citizens
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to not allow themselves to become excited by any appeal that may be made to their passions and
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prejudices by the representatives of any political party whatever, but to keep cool heads and use
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their good offices to preserve the public peace and to protect every person, the humblest citizen
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in all his rights, political and personal. Some in the Democratic Party dismissed the red shirt
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as a conspiracy, claiming it was a pretext to allow the government to bring federal troops
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into the state. Rhetoric, intimidation, violence, and some good old ballot box stuffing proved
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effective. Brave populists and Republicans who showed up to vote did not see their candidates
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win in the North Carolina elections in November of 1898. Democrats, using the white supremacy
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platform, retook the North Carolina legislature, county governments, and dominated the state's
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congressional seats. However, in Wilmington, not a single local political seat changed in the
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November 1898 election, mainly because their local elections weren't to be held until March
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of 1899. It was soon clear that racial superiority did not include the quality of patience
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because some white supremacists felt it was far too long to wait until March elections
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to seize power. So on November 10th, two days after the elections, a mob organized to overthrow
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the racially mixed local government in Wilmington. Well, as much as you can organize a mob
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nobody reads the org charts. They were a motivated mob. For the day after the elections
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the best white citizens had gotten together, drafted some resolutions, and, no surprise
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approved their own resolutions to end what was called in one sympathetic newspaper
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the Negro domination. They had a lot of demands, including that Alexander Manley, the editor of the Daily Record
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leave the city within 24 hours, that the mayor and chief of police must resign, that blacks would no longer
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be allowed to vote, and that maybe populists and Republicans should leave town forever
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Oh, and they wanted it done by the next day. Racist and pushy, you got to choose one
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You can't be both. These decisions by the best white people were known because they were published
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in the Wilmington Messenger with the headline, White Declaration of Independence. Threats were made that the mob would choke the Cape Fear
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River with carcasses It wasn a hollow threat By 11 a on November 10th Alfred Moore Waddell
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a former Confederate general who also lost a bid for the governorship to then-current Governor
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Russell, led a large group of men to destroy the presses of the Daily Record. The mob included
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members of the Red Shirts, the White Government Union, which was a group dedicated to white
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people sticking together, vigilantes, and probably your garden-variety hoodlums. Manley had already left town because he received a warning
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and because he was no dummy. It's estimated that at least 2,000 people
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took part in the destruction of Manley's printing operations, which were ultimately burned to the ground
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Governor Russell responded and tried to maintain order by sending in the Wilmington Light Infantry
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Instead of establishing peace, they participated. As the mayhem progressed, some in the mob
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turned their guns on blacks, who were more than willing to return fire
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Reverend J. Allen Kirk recalled hearing the shrieks and screams of children, of mothers, of wives. Although no records exist, it is estimated
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as many as 60 black residents were killed. Many blacks fled the city to take refuge for days in
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the surrounding swamps and the black cemetery. Alfred Waddell, when finding white Republicans
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paraded them around the city before banishing them on a train. In the following weeks
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many residents left Wilmington, including 2,100 blacks, leaving a white majority. Waddell and his mob stormed Wilmington Town Hall, where the elected government was forced to resign
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at gunpoint. Then Waddell declared himself the new mayor. Over 100 black officials were forced
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from their positions, including black police officers and firefighters. Both black and white
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residents appealed to President William McKinley for help, but no federal troops were sent
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McKinley and his Secretary of War, Russell Elger, understood the severity of the developments
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but the sending of federal troops at the time into a state for a local issue was viewed as illegal
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Shortly after the events of November 10th in Wilmington, sympathetic newspapers covered the story with distorted narratives
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The Raleigh News and Observer declared the violence as being absolutely necessary
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to save Wilmington from degradation. The Wilmington Messenger praised the heroic efforts of the city's white population
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in gaining liberation from black corruption and tyranny. The King's Weekly announced the developments with the headline
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Everything Goes White. For almost 100 years after the event, North Carolina's newspapers, media, and state institutions
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largely described the coup as a race war incited by black aggression
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and heralded many of the coup's leaders as heroes. It would take nearly a century for a new narrative to be heard
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No one involved in the insurrection, destruction, or violence was prosecuted for their actions
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Waddell, the self-appointed mayor of Wilmington, held the office for seven years until 1905
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Charles Aycock, leader in the white supremacist campaign and an organizer of the coup
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was elected governor of North Carolina in 1900. Wilmington became a model for Jim Crow laws
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state and local regulations robbing black citizens of their civil rights, and segregating races to prevent any contact that would portray blacks and whites as equal
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Such laws that first arose at the end of Reconstruction in 1877
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only started to be dismantled with the Supreme Court's decision to reverse its 1896
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separate but equal ruling with its 1954 decision in Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka
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and later the passage of the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965
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