Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy

“The killers came by streetcar. Their boots struck the packed clay earth like muffled drumbeats as they bounded from the cars and began to patrol the wide dirt roads.”

Wilmington’s Lie opens in media res, or in the middle of the action. This quote describes the actions of the Red Shirts marching into the majority Black Brooklyn neighborhood of Wilmington on November 10th, 1898. The tone of the opening is menacing and polemical, describing the white men as “killers” to emphasize the thematic focus on Racial Violence and Political Coups.

“For whites in Wilmington, blacks had ceased to be slaves, but they had not ceased to be black. They were still considered unworthy, unequal, and inferior, still subservient to whites by any measure—social, political, or economic.”

This quote describes the racial prejudice held by white people in Wilmington during the Reconstruction era (See: Background). Although legally Black people had been given rights, including limited suffrage, racist attitudes prevailed.

“‘Galloway ought to be arrested at once,’ the Journal demanded.

White politicians claimed there had been massive voter fraud. They demanded that the election results be invalidated.”

A major theme of Wilmington’s Lie is Media and Propaganda’s Role in Fostering Racism. In this quote, Zucchino quotes from newspaper reports at the time to illustrate the overwhelming white media narrative about Black political power in the South: That it was dangerous and unlawful. This quote specifically refers to the election of Abraham Galloway to state senate in 1868.