Wilmington Honors 128th Anniversary of 1898 Coup and Massacre

“The wreath is more than an arrangement of flowers; it is a symbol of remembrance, a symbol of respect, a symbol of the promises that we make to those who came before us,” Evelyn Adger said during a ceremony on November 10, 2026.

Community members and local leaders gathered at the 1898 Memorial Park on North Third Street to mark the 128th anniversary of the Wilmington coup and massacre, as reported by STARNEWS. The annual event, presented by New Hanover County and Wilmington’s Commission on African American History, took place at the memorial which was dedicated in 2008.

The event served as a solemn reflection on a day when armed White supremacists, organized by members of the local Democratic Party, attacked Wilmington’s Black community and forced its biracial, Fusionist government to resign at gunpoint.

How white supremacists staged the only successful coup in U.S. history

A history of achievement and destruction

A mob burnt down The Daily Record, which was the only Black-owned daily newspaper in the country at the time, and used weapons including machine guns to open fire on Black residents.

While the loss of life was catastrophic—with an untold number, likely hundreds, murdered—the destruction also targeted the city’s Black middle class, driving many residents out of town.

Wilmington Honors 128th Anniversary of 1898 Coup and Massacre — Photo: wect.com

Evelyn Adger, chair of the Commission on African American History, emphasized that the community’s legacy is not defined solely by this tragedy. She noted that the people of 1898 left behind a history of achievement and resilience, built by a community that dared to create and lead.

“Our children deserve to know that they come from more than struggle. They come from builders. They come from visionaries,” Adger said.

The massacre was not an isolated event but part of a broader campaign of White supremacist terror across North Carolina as Black citizens gained political and economic standing during the Reconstruction era.

Wilmington remembers 1898 massacre and coup with memorial ceremony

The cost of displacement

LaShonda Teague, a fourth-generation descendant of the victims, spoke about the suddenness of the upheaval, according to WECT.

They had to flee with nothing and go somewhere and start all over with nothing, not a dollar in their pocket so just imagine one day, like I said earlier, kissing your children good night and the next day your whole world is turned upside down and you die only because you’re a Black man in a neighborhood, she said.

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Historians view the 1898 violence as a reaction to the economic and political success of the Fusion movement, a coalition of Black and White Republicans alongside working-class White Populists. This violence was a reaction to the economic and political success of the Fusion movement and was carried out by armed White supremacists organized by members of the local Democratic Party.

Confronting the past to build a future

For much of the century following the massacre, public conversation regarding the events was muted or minimized. Some accounts attempted to frame the violence as a spontaneous “race riot” rather than a planned coup.

Wilmington festival brings families together to remember 1898 massacre and coup

Saffo stated that the community bears a responsibility to ensure such discrimination and violence never happen again.

The ceremony included several community figures, including New Hanover County NAACP President LeRon Montgomery, who provided the invocation, and Wilmington City Councilman Kevin Spears. Members of the Wilmington Police Department also attended the proceedings, STARNEWS reported. Atiba Johnson placed a wreath at the memorial, and students from the Cape Fear Center for Inquiry gathered around the flowers following the service.