OppressionNovember 10, 1898

The Wilmington coup of 1898

White supremacists violently overthrow a multiracial elected government in North Carolina.

Jim Crow The Anti-Lynching Movement Greed — The Root

Resources

Articles·1

The Lost History of an American Coup D'État

Adrienne LaFrance & Vann R. Newkirk II

The 1898 Wilmington coup that overthrew a biracial government.

Documentaries·1

American Coup: Wilmington 1898

PBS American Experience

The only successful coup in U.S. history: white supremacists overthrew Wilmington's elected biracial government.

Videos·1

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 (full documentary)

PBS American Experience

Websites·2

Wilmington Race Riot of 1898

The 1898 coup that overthrew an elected biracial government.

The 1898 Wilmington Coup — research guide

UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries

Documents and figures of the only successful coup d'état on U.S. soil.

The web

Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.

part of·Thread
Political Disenfranchisement
The 1898 coup was the violent leading edge of the campaign to strip Black Southerners of the vote.
documented by (incoming)·Person
Ida B. Wells
Wells and other Black journalists exposed the racial-terror violence of the era to the nation and the world.
caused (incoming)·Thread
Greed — The Root
A thriving biracial government and Black middle class were overthrown to restore white economic and political control.

Where to go next

Political Disenfranchisement

The 1898 coup was the violent leading edge of the campaign to strip Black Southerners of the vote.

Wells and other Black journalists exposed the racial-terror violence of the era to the nation and the world.

Greed — The Root

A thriving biracial government and Black middle class were overthrown to restore white economic and political control.