Lauren Collins Explores the Legacy of the Wilmington Coup

The 1898 Wilmington coup dismantled Black political power

White supremacists orchestrated a successful coup d’état in Wilmington, North Carolina, on November 10, 1898, forcibly removing Black elected officials from office at gunpoint.

The event, which involved premeditated terror and the deaths of dozens if not hundreds of Black Wilmingtonians, remains the only successful coup in American history, according to reporting from WUNC.

'They Stole a City' author Lauren Collins on how Wilmington coup was 'covered up' • FRANCE 24

For generations, the violence was often minimized or dismissed in local history as a mere “race riot.” This framing obscured the systematic nature of the takeover, where armed groups used violence to overthrow a legitimate local government.

In her book, They Stole a City: Wilmington’s White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live with Its Legacy, New Yorker staff writer Lauren Collins examines how this single day of terror reshaped the city’s trajectory. Collins, who grew up in Wilmington, noted that she was never taught the full scope of the massacre during her upbringing.

They Stole a City with Lauren Collins

The generational weight of stolen governance

The coup did not just end lives; it ended a period of Black civic participation and economic agency in North Carolina. By forcing officials to resign under threat of violence, the perpetrators effectively erased the political representation of a growing Black middle class.

Collins focuses her research on four specific Wilmington families to illustrate how the massacre’s shadow stretches across more than a century. The legacy of 1898 is not a static historical fact but a living influence on the descendants of those who survived the violence and those who participated in it.

Lauren Collins explains how white supremacists 'STOLE a city'

“The Wilmington massacre and coup d’état of November 10, 1898 is widely known as the only successful coup in American history.”

The transition of power was not a spontaneous eruption of community tension. It was a calculated effort to dismantle the existing social and political order through organized, white supremacist violence.

The long-term consequences for the region included the systematic disenfranchisement of Black voters, a process that would define Southern politics for decades to follow. This shift fundamentally altered Wilmington's economy and social structure, creating disparities that persist today.

"America's only coup, then what?" A conversation with author Lauren Collins

While some historical perspectives might argue that the era was defined by broader regional social shifts, the specific, violent mechanics of the Wilmington event distinguish it as a targeted overthrow of government rather than a general period of civil unrest.

The families identified by Collins serve as a lens through which the enduring impact of the coup can be measured, showing how the loss of political agency in 1898 dictated the social mobility and civic engagement of subsequent generations.

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