1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:06,640 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. After the attack on the US Capital on 2 00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:10,720 Speaker 1: January six, we started getting requests for an episode on 3 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:14,400 Speaker 1: the eighteen ninety eight Wilmington's Que. So we are requests 4 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:16,759 Speaker 1: for us to cover this topic from folks who had 5 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:20,000 Speaker 1: not heard this episode yet, and we got requests from 6 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:22,520 Speaker 1: other folks for us to reissue this as a Saturday 7 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:26,160 Speaker 1: classic our folks who had heard it before. Either way, 8 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:29,160 Speaker 1: that means that we are going to now re release 9 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:32,640 Speaker 1: our two part on the Wilmington's Que. This is a 10 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:37,040 Speaker 1: two part episode that originally came out on January fifteen, 11 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:41,000 Speaker 1: so almost exactly three years ago, and we are going 12 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:46,400 Speaker 1: to be sharing the second part next Saturday. Welcome to 13 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:49,159 Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I 14 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 15 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:03,880 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. Today we are talking about 16 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:05,600 Speaker 1: something we're actually going to talk about it for the 17 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:09,720 Speaker 1: next two episodes, and it is sometimes called the Wilmington's 18 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:13,479 Speaker 1: Race Riot of eight. But we've mentioned on the show 19 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:16,600 Speaker 1: before that the term race riot tends to be pretty misleading. 20 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:20,120 Speaker 1: Race riot really suggests an incident in which people of 21 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: two or more races are equal aggressors and some kind 22 00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: of mass violence, but that is not usually what happened. 23 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,480 Speaker 1: In the United States. The incidents that are described as 24 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:33,440 Speaker 1: race riots usually involved violence against a racial or ethnic 25 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 1: minority carried out by a white mob. The incident we're 26 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,400 Speaker 1: talking about today and this two parter follows that pattern. 27 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:43,960 Speaker 1: It is an appalling example of violence against Wilmington, North 28 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,640 Speaker 1: Carolina's black community, and it was carried out by a 29 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:51,080 Speaker 1: mob of armed white men. In addition to that, it 30 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:54,280 Speaker 1: was a coup. It was the only known successful coupdeta 31 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:57,840 Speaker 1: in the in the United States history. This white mob 32 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:01,600 Speaker 1: over through the duly elected government of Wilmington's or replaced 33 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:04,960 Speaker 1: it with one of their own. Choosing This whole incident 34 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:07,960 Speaker 1: is directly tied to the end of reconstruction and how 35 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,079 Speaker 1: that affected North Carolina electoral politics. So we're gonna start 36 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:13,240 Speaker 1: with a little bit of scene setting related to all 37 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:15,600 Speaker 1: of that. Then we are going to talk about an 38 00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:19,680 Speaker 1: immediate and pretty dramatic precursor to the whole coup and riot. 39 00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:23,400 Speaker 1: Next time we will talk about the q itself and 40 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: its aftermath and as it heads up. The last section 41 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 1: of today's episode includes a discussion of a rape, so 42 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:35,639 Speaker 1: for background. After the U. S. Civil War, the federal government, 43 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:40,800 Speaker 1: community leaders, religious organizations, and activists all took steps to 44 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:44,280 Speaker 1: try to rebuild the nation and correct the social, economic, 45 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:47,760 Speaker 1: and political problems that had grown out of the institution 46 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:52,000 Speaker 1: of slavery. These efforts came to be known as reconstruction, 47 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:55,680 Speaker 1: and they included things like amendments to the Constitution, civil 48 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,040 Speaker 1: rights legislation, and the establishment of the U. S. Bureau 49 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:03,080 Speaker 1: of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the 50 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:07,600 Speaker 1: Freedman's Bureau. As part of reconstruction, the nation had to 51 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:10,360 Speaker 1: figure out how the states that had seceded from the 52 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:14,040 Speaker 1: Union could be readmitted into it, and until that could happen, 53 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:17,400 Speaker 1: the former Confederate states were placed under martial law. The 54 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:20,400 Speaker 1: idea was that troops would occupy each state until it 55 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:24,880 Speaker 1: established a quote loyal Republican government. The occupying troops were 56 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:27,919 Speaker 1: meant to protect the progress of reconstruction, as well as 57 00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:31,720 Speaker 1: protecting the freed people and their allies. The federal government 58 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:34,960 Speaker 1: went through a lengthy back and force, interrupted by the 59 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:39,160 Speaker 1: assassination of Abraham Lincoln, about exactly what the requirements for 60 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 1: readmission into the Union would be and how to carry 61 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:46,040 Speaker 1: those out. In the end, the states in question had 62 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 1: to ratify the fourteenth Amendment to the U. S Constitution, 63 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:52,560 Speaker 1: as well as hold a new constitutional convention at the 64 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 1: state level. The new state constitutions had to include voting 65 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,400 Speaker 1: rights for black men. As states where readmit it into 66 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:03,440 Speaker 1: the Union, they were generally at least temporarily under the 67 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 1: control of the Republican Party, and for a time the 68 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:09,480 Speaker 1: Republican Party was also highly focused on civil rights and 69 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:12,520 Speaker 1: equality for both the freed people and poor white citizens. 70 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:18,000 Speaker 1: Black voters overwhelmingly voted for Republicans, and Republicans proposed sweeping 71 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:20,920 Speaker 1: changes that they believed would reshape the nation into one 72 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: in which all men really were created equal. We've said 73 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:27,760 Speaker 1: men on purpose here, because although there were activists for 74 00:04:27,839 --> 00:04:31,760 Speaker 1: women's suffrage, the focus was really on men. But this 75 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 1: had started to shift by the eighteen seventies. Southern Democrats 76 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:40,600 Speaker 1: vehemently objected to what the Republicans were doing. Many Democratic 77 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:44,000 Speaker 1: Party leaders were former Confederates and slave owners, and they 78 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:48,120 Speaker 1: pushed back against both new economic policies and the idea 79 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:51,640 Speaker 1: that black people should be equal citizens. The ku Klux 80 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,160 Speaker 1: Klan was established in eighteen sixty six and worked both 81 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 1: within and outside the Democratic Party to undermine reconstruction Arab 82 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:04,720 Speaker 1: policy these and terrorized the black community. As a Reconstruction 83 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:08,560 Speaker 1: went on, Democrats started alleging that the Republican governments were corrupt, 84 00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: and while there certainly were incidents of corruption, that almost 85 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:15,880 Speaker 1: goes without saying. Some of this criticism really boiled down 86 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: to the Republican government's spending money on things that the 87 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:21,520 Speaker 1: Democrats didn't agree with, along with a sort of chicken 88 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: and egg assumption, which was also racist, that any government 89 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:29,320 Speaker 1: that allowed the full participation of black people was automatically corrupt. 90 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:32,600 Speaker 1: Many in the Republican Party also started to pull back 91 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:36,320 Speaker 1: for making really sweeping civil rights changes and instead started 92 00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:41,280 Speaker 1: proposing more moderate, incremental steps. By the mid eighteen seventies, 93 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:45,200 Speaker 1: radical Republican power was waning and state governments in the 94 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:50,039 Speaker 1: South were returning to the Democratic Party's control. By eighteen 95 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: seventy six, the only Southern states still governed by the 96 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:59,320 Speaker 1: Republican Party were South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. This brings 97 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:02,119 Speaker 1: us to the press Sidential Election of eighteen seventy six. 98 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:06,000 Speaker 1: This was a highly disputed and deeply divisive election between 99 00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 1: Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrats Samuel J. Tilden. On 100 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:13,279 Speaker 1: election date, Tilden had a lead of two hundred and 101 00:06:13,279 --> 00:06:15,800 Speaker 1: sixty thousand in the popular vote, but he was one 102 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,600 Speaker 1: vote shy of an electoral college victory. So, for our 103 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:21,880 Speaker 1: listeners living outside the US who may not be as 104 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:25,000 Speaker 1: familiar with this, every state has a number of electors 105 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:28,040 Speaker 1: that's based on its population, and technically people are voting 106 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:32,800 Speaker 1: for those electors, who then vote for president. Meanwhile, the 107 00:06:32,839 --> 00:06:36,640 Speaker 1: electoral votes for South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana were all 108 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:40,680 Speaker 1: in dispute due to allegations of fraud and voter intimidation 109 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:44,200 Speaker 1: and vote counts that did not match up. One Oregon 110 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:47,560 Speaker 1: elector was also in dispute. Hayes had clearly won the 111 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:50,599 Speaker 1: state of Oregon, but the Democratic governor had tried to 112 00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:54,080 Speaker 1: replace one Republican elector with a Democrat on the ground, 113 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:58,640 Speaker 1: so the Republican was postmaster and therefore not eligible to serve. 114 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:03,760 Speaker 1: After weeks of bitter infighting and increasing fears that the 115 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:07,279 Speaker 1: country was headed for a second Civil war, Congress created 116 00:07:07,279 --> 00:07:10,120 Speaker 1: an Electoral Commission to try to sort this whole thing out. 117 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 1: After still more secret negotiations, than political maneuvering. On March second, 118 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:18,680 Speaker 1: the Commission voted seven to eight to award the disputed 119 00:07:18,680 --> 00:07:22,760 Speaker 1: electoral votes to Hayes. The Commission's final vote was strictly 120 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:28,400 Speaker 1: along party lines. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people, especially Democrats, 121 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:31,560 Speaker 1: didn't see Hayes as a legitimate president after all of this. 122 00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:35,280 Speaker 1: But at the same time, all that political maneuvering, which 123 00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:38,200 Speaker 1: came to be known as the Compromise of eighteen seventy seven, 124 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:43,000 Speaker 1: had included several appeasements for Democrats in the South. One 125 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:46,520 Speaker 1: of these was that if Democrats accepted Hayes's president, the 126 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:50,400 Speaker 1: federal government would stop using federal troops to bolster reconstruction 127 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:55,080 Speaker 1: efforts in the South. So this is really the thinnest 128 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:58,840 Speaker 1: of overviews. Reconstruction was a really turbulent time. There was 129 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 1: a lot going on, and a lot of it was 130 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:04,080 Speaker 1: happening simultaneously. We're really just trying to give a general 131 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:06,120 Speaker 1: sense of what the nation had gone through by the 132 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:09,400 Speaker 1: late eighteen seventies. It was even more chaotic and violent 133 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:11,960 Speaker 1: than we can really do justice too in one episode, 134 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:15,280 Speaker 1: even if that one episode was only about reconstruction and 135 00:08:15,320 --> 00:08:19,280 Speaker 1: nothing else. Up Slate has been doing an Academy on Reconstruction, 136 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:23,280 Speaker 1: and they literally have a an Episode zero that is 137 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:26,880 Speaker 1: essentially a basic timeline of stuff that happened that was 138 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:29,840 Speaker 1: important during reconstruction, which gives you a sense of those 139 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:32,800 Speaker 1: important things, but not so much of like how that 140 00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:38,640 Speaker 1: the flavor of the time. As reconstruction ended, former Confederate 141 00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:41,720 Speaker 1: leaders once again rose to power in many Southern states 142 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:45,840 Speaker 1: in a return to white supremacy that white supremacists framed 143 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:50,880 Speaker 1: as quote redemption. Discriminatory legislation known as Jim Crow laws 144 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,680 Speaker 1: followed in some places. This shift, which had really been 145 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,920 Speaker 1: going on before the end of reconstruction, seemed both immediate 146 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:01,840 Speaker 1: and an inn up did. But what happened in North 147 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:05,679 Speaker 1: Carolina shows how it wasn't really a continual linear progression 148 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:08,880 Speaker 1: from reconstruction to Jim Crow, which is how it's often 149 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:13,600 Speaker 1: imagined or framed. So historians marked a number of different 150 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:16,680 Speaker 1: spots as the end of reconstruction, and the Compromise of 151 00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:19,160 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy seven is one of them, and we will 152 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:22,400 Speaker 1: talk about how that wound up playing out in North Carolina. 153 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:36,320 Speaker 1: After a quick sponsor break once reconstruction ended the United States, 154 00:09:36,400 --> 00:09:39,920 Speaker 1: the Democratic Party regained control of North Carolina, and at 155 00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:43,319 Speaker 1: that time the party was primarily run by wealthy landowners 156 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:46,680 Speaker 1: and businessmen. It took a really lace affair approach to 157 00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:50,400 Speaker 1: the economic needs of less affluent people, so their party 158 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:53,080 Speaker 1: really started to suffer during an economic downturn in the 159 00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:57,000 Speaker 1: eighteen eighties. North Carolina was a very rural state. I mean, 160 00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,680 Speaker 1: there's still big stretches of North Carolina that are really rural. 161 00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:03,080 Speaker 1: But this was even more true. Small farmers felt like 162 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:05,560 Speaker 1: the Democrats weren't doing enough to help them in this 163 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:09,800 Speaker 1: rocky economy, and instead railroads, banks, and big businesses were 164 00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:14,000 Speaker 1: getting lots of perks while small farmers got nothing. At first, 165 00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:17,559 Speaker 1: the Democrats tried to adjust their platform to address these concerns, 166 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:21,160 Speaker 1: but nothing really got done, so people started abandoning the 167 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:25,280 Speaker 1: Democrats for a third party, the Populists. At first, the 168 00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:28,319 Speaker 1: Populists tried to work with Democrats to advance their own 169 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:32,720 Speaker 1: economic agenda. When this failed, they turned to another ally, 170 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:37,520 Speaker 1: the Republican Party. The Populists, also known as the People's Party, 171 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:40,320 Speaker 1: formed a coalition with Republicans and what came to be 172 00:10:40,360 --> 00:10:43,960 Speaker 1: known as fusion politics. On their own, the Populists and 173 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:47,359 Speaker 1: the Republicans didn't have enough power to unseat the Democrats. 174 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:50,440 Speaker 1: Not only did the Democrats have solid control of the 175 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:53,800 Speaker 1: state legislature, they're also using a number of tactics to 176 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:58,200 Speaker 1: stay in power throughout the state. These tactics included gerrymandering 177 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:01,240 Speaker 1: and laws that allowed the state government and Raleigh to 178 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:04,040 Speaker 1: appoint people at the local level regardless of what the 179 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:08,040 Speaker 1: local vot voters actually wanted, so it didn't matter, for example, 180 00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:12,559 Speaker 1: if a local population was overwhelmingly Republican, legislators and Raleigh 181 00:11:12,559 --> 00:11:18,280 Speaker 1: would still appoint Democrats to those positions. But together Republicans 182 00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:22,000 Speaker 1: and populists did have enough support to challenge the Democrats. 183 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:25,280 Speaker 1: Although race had long been used as a political wedge 184 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:28,960 Speaker 1: in the South, white populists set aside their racial differences 185 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:32,120 Speaker 1: with the Republican party to try to advance the issues 186 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:36,800 Speaker 1: that both parties agreed on. These issues included education, jobs, 187 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:41,440 Speaker 1: and voting rights. Republicans and populists still maintained their own 188 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:44,400 Speaker 1: platforms on issues that they disagreed on, such as the 189 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:50,000 Speaker 1: gold standard. So I should point out that um the 190 00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:52,559 Speaker 1: race has been used it as a political wedge everywhere, 191 00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:55,440 Speaker 1: It was just most explicitly used as a wedge in 192 00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:57,000 Speaker 1: the South, which is one of the things we're going 193 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:00,680 Speaker 1: to talk about later. So the idea of plitical parties 194 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:03,840 Speaker 1: working together to achieve a common goal was not unique 195 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:06,960 Speaker 1: to North Carolina. Wasn't unique to these particular parties, but 196 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:10,240 Speaker 1: the way the Fusion movement played out in North Carolina 197 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:14,000 Speaker 1: was unique had a dramatic effect on the political landscape 198 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:17,760 Speaker 1: of the state. In eighteen ninety four, roughly seventeen years 199 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:20,240 Speaker 1: after the end of Reconstruction, the People's Party and the 200 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:23,520 Speaker 1: Republican Party in North Carolina agreed on a slate of 201 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:27,400 Speaker 1: candidates that included members of both parties. They endorsed these 202 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:31,440 Speaker 1: common candidates rather than running against one another. This strategy 203 00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:36,720 Speaker 1: was extremely successful. The Fusion alliance of populists and Republicans 204 00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:40,160 Speaker 1: won races all over the state. They took control of 205 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:44,720 Speaker 1: the state legislature and several statewide offices, and several Fusion 206 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: politicians were elected to Congress. This new Fusion government started 207 00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:52,520 Speaker 1: making changes as soon as they were sworn in. They 208 00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:55,760 Speaker 1: repealed the County Government Act of eighteen seventy seven, which 209 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:58,280 Speaker 1: was one of the laws that had allowed state lawmakers 210 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:01,400 Speaker 1: to appoint people to local offices. Is Rather than leaving 211 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:04,800 Speaker 1: those offices in control of the local voters. The Fusion 212 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:09,120 Speaker 1: Coalition increased funding for schools, prisons, and charitable institutions by 213 00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:13,439 Speaker 1: raising taxes, and they required that political parties used standard 214 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:16,760 Speaker 1: colors and symbols so that people who were not literate 215 00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:20,040 Speaker 1: could still exercise the right to vote in future elections. 216 00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:24,520 Speaker 1: Some of the Fusion government's efforts also targeted the economic 217 00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:27,320 Speaker 1: issues that had led white voters to leave the Democratic 218 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:30,280 Speaker 1: Party in the first place. They cut back on the 219 00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 1: privileges offered to railroads, which had been seen as favoring 220 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:37,280 Speaker 1: big business over working people. They set a cap on 221 00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:41,960 Speaker 1: interest rates, which anchered banks and their investors. Thanks in 222 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:45,320 Speaker 1: part to this increased access to voting, the Fusion Alliance 223 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:47,880 Speaker 1: had an even greater success two years later. In eight 224 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:53,679 Speaker 1: Fusion candidates won every statewide election, and they completely supplanted 225 00:13:53,679 --> 00:13:57,679 Speaker 1: the Democrats. After this election, the State House included thirty 226 00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:02,000 Speaker 1: nine populists, fifty four Republicans twenty four Democrats. The state 227 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:06,720 Speaker 1: Senate included twenty five populists for eighteen Republicans and seven Democrats. 228 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:10,400 Speaker 1: So this gave Democrats, who previously had had total control 229 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:13,960 Speaker 1: of the entire state government about of the State House 230 00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:17,400 Speaker 1: and less than fifteen percent of the state Senate. Republican 231 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:22,120 Speaker 1: Daniel L. Russell became North Carolina as governor. Following this election, 232 00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:27,000 Speaker 1: North Carolina's black population also had more representation in the government. 233 00:14:27,680 --> 00:14:31,280 Speaker 1: More than one thousand black citizens held elected and appointed 234 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:34,960 Speaker 1: offices across the state. This still wasn't even close to 235 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:37,600 Speaker 1: proportional to how many black citizens lived in the state, 236 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:40,080 Speaker 1: but it was a lot more than it had been 237 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:44,720 Speaker 1: the Fusion Coalition. And these two elections also had a 238 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:48,520 Speaker 1: huge impact on the city of Wilmington's Specifically, Wilmington is 239 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:50,880 Speaker 1: on the coast of North Carolina along the Cape Beer 240 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 1: River and separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the by 241 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:56,520 Speaker 1: a chain of barrier islands. It was also an important 242 00:14:56,560 --> 00:14:59,200 Speaker 1: port during the Civil War, and after the Union took 243 00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:01,840 Speaker 1: Wilmington in eight sixty five, it had become home to 244 00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:06,120 Speaker 1: an increasing number of black refugees. By eighteen seventy, the 245 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:10,240 Speaker 1: city was majority black. That meant that after the end 246 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:13,200 Speaker 1: of reconstruction, the state government had to pull a lot 247 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:16,360 Speaker 1: of tricks to keep white Democrats in power in Wilmington's 248 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:21,160 Speaker 1: in defiance of the city's majority black Republican voters. In 249 00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:24,240 Speaker 1: addition to the gerrymandering and the County Government Act that 250 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:27,080 Speaker 1: we talked about before. There was also a lot of 251 00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:31,040 Speaker 1: voter intimidation and a habit of just not holding elections 252 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:34,160 Speaker 1: once a Democrat was in office. In addition to the 253 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:37,800 Speaker 1: other reforms that we already discussed, the Fusion government revised 254 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:42,520 Speaker 1: the Wilmington's City Charter to require municipal elections every two years, 255 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:45,760 Speaker 1: so that people could actually vote candidates out of office 256 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:49,720 Speaker 1: if they wanted. The new city charter also allowed the 257 00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 1: governor to appoint five people to the Wilmington's Board of Alderman, 258 00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:57,480 Speaker 1: with Wilmington's voters electing one Alderman per ward to fill 259 00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:00,920 Speaker 1: the rest of the positions. In this case, the Fusion 260 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:03,800 Speaker 1: government was doing something similar to what Democrats had been 261 00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:07,160 Speaker 1: doing before. They were trying to limit black voters power 262 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:11,680 Speaker 1: in the Wilmington's government. The Fusion coalition's justification for this 263 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:15,080 Speaker 1: was a fear that if Wilmington's elected a majority Blackboard 264 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:18,600 Speaker 1: of Alderman, the Democrats would then use that as fuel 265 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:21,960 Speaker 1: for their campaigns. And while I mean this this might 266 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:25,600 Speaker 1: have been a justified fear, was definitely justified based on 267 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:29,720 Speaker 1: what happened next. Uh, that rationale was still discriminatory and 268 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:32,920 Speaker 1: it did nothing to prevent violence like that their their 269 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:36,040 Speaker 1: rationale for doing this did not prevent the violence that 270 00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:39,640 Speaker 1: they said they were trying to prevent. Governor Russell's five 271 00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:43,280 Speaker 1: appointments to the Wilmington's Board of Alderman were all Republicans, 272 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:49,240 Speaker 1: for white men and one black man. Then, on March seven, 273 00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:52,960 Speaker 1: the City of Wilmington's held its first municipal election in 274 00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:57,040 Speaker 1: four years. The result was a majority Republican Board of 275 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:00,680 Speaker 1: Aldermen that included three black men. The new Board of 276 00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:05,080 Speaker 1: Alderman then elected Silas P. Wright, a white Republican, as mayor. 277 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:10,240 Speaker 1: The incumbent Democrats didn't take this well at all. They 278 00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:13,160 Speaker 1: refused to vacate their seats on the Board of Aldermen. 279 00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:16,560 Speaker 1: The three Democrats who were newly elected to the Board 280 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:19,320 Speaker 1: of Aldermen also teamed up with the Democrats who had 281 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:22,520 Speaker 1: been defeated, and together they claimed that the new election 282 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:26,080 Speaker 1: rules were unconstitutional and that they would have been elected 283 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:29,760 Speaker 1: under the old rules, meaning that they were therefore they 284 00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:33,000 Speaker 1: were the real board of Aldermen. So for a time 285 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:37,639 Speaker 1: Wilmington's had three competing boards of Aldermen, each claiming to 286 00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:41,719 Speaker 1: be the legitimate one. This sounds a little bit like uh, 287 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:46,800 Speaker 1: you know European royalty disputes over who actually is running 288 00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:50,040 Speaker 1: any given country at any time. Uh. This dispute went 289 00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,160 Speaker 1: all the way to the state Supreme Court. Months later, 290 00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:55,639 Speaker 1: the court ruled in favor of the Fusion Board of 291 00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:58,800 Speaker 1: Aldermen that had been appointed and elected under the revised 292 00:17:58,800 --> 00:18:03,399 Speaker 1: Wilmington's city charter. The Democratic Party was outraged at the 293 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:06,920 Speaker 1: success of the Fusion coalition, both in North Carolina in 294 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:11,320 Speaker 1: general and in Wilmington's specifically. Not only had Democrats essentially 295 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:14,200 Speaker 1: lost all political power in North Carolina, as we talked 296 00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:16,080 Speaker 1: about before, a lot of people in the party were 297 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:19,120 Speaker 1: white supremacists. They objected to the very idea of black 298 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:23,040 Speaker 1: people holding office at all. Infuriated by their losses in 299 00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:27,200 Speaker 1: North Carolina and Wilmington's, Democrats embarked on a campaign to 300 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:29,720 Speaker 1: take back political power of the state. And we're going 301 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:32,160 Speaker 1: to talk about how they did that. After we first 302 00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:43,600 Speaker 1: paused for a little sponsor break. After the widespread success 303 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:47,159 Speaker 1: of the Republican and populist Fusion cooperation in North Carolina's 304 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:52,000 Speaker 1: statewide election in eighteen, Democrats in North Carolina started preparing 305 00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 1: for a bitter election in eight, Democratic Party leader Daniel 306 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:01,359 Speaker 1: Schneck said quote, it will be the meanest, vileist, dirtiest 307 00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:05,199 Speaker 1: campaign since eighteen seventy six. That was in reference to 308 00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:08,160 Speaker 1: the presidential election that we talked about in part one 309 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:12,879 Speaker 1: of this episode. As part of this campaign, Democrats started 310 00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:17,240 Speaker 1: accusing the fusion government of corruption and mismanagement. But as 311 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:20,479 Speaker 1: had been the case during Reconstruction, many of these charges 312 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:23,040 Speaker 1: of corruption boiled down to the fact that the Fusionist 313 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:26,520 Speaker 1: government was spending tax money on things the Democratic Party 314 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,280 Speaker 1: didn't want it to be spent on, like the school 315 00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:32,880 Speaker 1: and prison funding that we mentioned before the break. As 316 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:35,480 Speaker 1: was the case with some of the criticism of Republican 317 00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:40,239 Speaker 1: governments during Reconstruction, Democrats also made the racist assertion that 318 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:44,000 Speaker 1: black people were inherently untrustworthy, so a government that had 319 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:48,600 Speaker 1: the participation and support of black people must be inherently corrupt. 320 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:52,560 Speaker 1: But these claims of corruption and overspending were really a 321 00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:55,960 Speaker 1: small part of the Democrat strategy to undermine the Fusionist 322 00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:59,280 Speaker 1: government and to take back political power. A much bigger 323 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:03,800 Speaker 1: piece of this strategy was an explicit statewide white supremacy campaign. 324 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:08,679 Speaker 1: Democrats actively stoked racism and racial resentment, hyping up terrors 325 00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:12,160 Speaker 1: of the so called quote negro rule, and framing black 326 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:15,080 Speaker 1: citizens and leaders as an active threat to white virtue 327 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:19,520 Speaker 1: and the white way of life. They spread horror stories 328 00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:22,720 Speaker 1: of brutality at the hands of black police officers and 329 00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:27,120 Speaker 1: painted black civic leaders as threatening white womanhood, and they 330 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:30,600 Speaker 1: condemned white men who allied with black Republicans as race 331 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:36,040 Speaker 1: traders and unscrupulous devils. Again and again, white democrats brought 332 00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:39,679 Speaker 1: up the idea of home protection against the widespread quote 333 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:42,600 Speaker 1: threat of black people and the need to return to 334 00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:46,480 Speaker 1: the safety and security that had supposedly existed under white 335 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:50,640 Speaker 1: democratic rule. Although a lot of our focus and these 336 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,520 Speaker 1: two episodes as on black men, black women were targets 337 00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:55,720 Speaker 1: of this as well. They were portrayed in the white 338 00:20:55,760 --> 00:21:00,520 Speaker 1: media and in propaganda as shrieking, disrespectful herodance who rellewd 339 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:03,320 Speaker 1: and promiscuous. For example, there was a group of black 340 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:06,160 Speaker 1: women who started a campaign to get the same courteous 341 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:09,800 Speaker 1: treatment that white women received on public transportation, like the 342 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:12,880 Speaker 1: street car driver offering them a hand as they got 343 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:17,119 Speaker 1: on and off the car. Democrats propaganda portrayed this effort 344 00:21:17,160 --> 00:21:20,440 Speaker 1: as a belligerent tantrum and quote trying to rise above 345 00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:24,680 Speaker 1: their station. North Carolina Democrats got some fuel for their 346 00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:28,200 Speaker 1: white supremacy campaign from outside the state, thanks in part 347 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:31,920 Speaker 1: to a speech given by Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia. 348 00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:34,680 Speaker 1: Felton had played a big part in the political career 349 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:38,119 Speaker 1: of her husband, William Harrold Felton. She was such an 350 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:40,920 Speaker 1: influence on his work that an editorial about them ran 351 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:44,359 Speaker 1: under the headline quote which Felton is the congressman and 352 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:47,800 Speaker 1: which the wife. She also had a political life of 353 00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:51,080 Speaker 1: her own as a suffragist, prohibitionist, and reformer, and she 354 00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:54,560 Speaker 1: would eventually become the first female U. S Senator. She 355 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:57,879 Speaker 1: was appointed following the death of Senator Thomas E. Watson. 356 00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:02,200 Speaker 1: If you've ever walked through that tunnel in Hartsfield Jackson 357 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:05,479 Speaker 1: International Airport with this section on Atlanta history, there is 358 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:10,600 Speaker 1: a picture of Rebecca Latimer Felton. In August of she 359 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:13,520 Speaker 1: gave a speech called Woman on the Farm before the 360 00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:17,280 Speaker 1: Georgia Agricultural Society, which was later reprinted in the Wilmington's 361 00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:19,720 Speaker 1: Morning Star. This was a speech she had given in 362 00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:24,960 Speaker 1: various forms before, outlining the issues that were facing farm wives. 363 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,760 Speaker 1: She argued that the biggest threat to a white farmer's 364 00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:30,080 Speaker 1: wife was the risk of being raped by a black 365 00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:33,359 Speaker 1: man while her husband was away in the fields. She 366 00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:36,840 Speaker 1: criticized white men for failing to protect their women, and 367 00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:41,200 Speaker 1: she explicitly advocated lynching black men in order to prevent rape. 368 00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:45,520 Speaker 1: In this speech, she said, quote, if it needs lynching 369 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:49,440 Speaker 1: to protect woman's dearest possession from the ravening human beasts, 370 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:52,320 Speaker 1: then I say lynch a thousand times a week if 371 00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:57,239 Speaker 1: necessary for some context on this statement. Lynching was one 372 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:00,560 Speaker 1: of the primary ways that white supremacists tried to incite 373 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:03,760 Speaker 1: terror and submission among the black community following the end 374 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:08,719 Speaker 1: of slavery. Victims of lynching were frequently accused of having raped, groped, 375 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:12,640 Speaker 1: or otherwise assaulted a white woman. These kinds of allegations 376 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:15,359 Speaker 1: could also lead to mass violence, which is what happened 377 00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:19,640 Speaker 1: in Tulsa, Oklahoma in nine and in Rosewood, Florida in nine. 378 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,199 Speaker 1: Those are two massacres that we have talked about on 379 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:28,960 Speaker 1: previous episodes. Exact numbers are really hard to pinpoint, but 380 00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:32,560 Speaker 1: today it is estimated that only two to ten percent 381 00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,600 Speaker 1: of rape allegations in the United States are false. But 382 00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:37,800 Speaker 1: during the period that we are talking about here, the 383 00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:41,760 Speaker 1: rape allegations that were used to justify lynchings and massacres 384 00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:46,240 Speaker 1: were overwhelmingly false. The idea of a threat to white women, 385 00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:50,199 Speaker 1: particularly a white woman's virtue, was basically being used as 386 00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:53,840 Speaker 1: an excuse to torture and murder black men. The murders 387 00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:57,479 Speaker 1: themselves also tended to be horrifying, gruesome, and carried out 388 00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:00,800 Speaker 1: in public, with the victims bodies desecrated after their deaths. 389 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:04,360 Speaker 1: On top of that, the idea that black men were 390 00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:07,520 Speaker 1: rapists who were inactive and ongoing threat to white women 391 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:12,240 Speaker 1: was widespread. It was actively used by white supremacists as 392 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,000 Speaker 1: part of their efforts to retake control of the government. 393 00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:18,919 Speaker 1: So a week after Felton's address, Wilmington's black newspaper, The 394 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:21,960 Speaker 1: Wilmington's Daily Record, which may actually have been the only 395 00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:24,840 Speaker 1: daily black run newspaper in the United States at the time, 396 00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,919 Speaker 1: published a response. That response was most likely written by 397 00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:33,440 Speaker 1: its editor and co owner Alex Manley. This editorial framed 398 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:37,840 Speaker 1: these rape allegations as starting with consensual relationships between black 399 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:40,919 Speaker 1: men and white women, and it compared these relationships to 400 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:44,880 Speaker 1: those between white men and black women. The editorial went 401 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:48,160 Speaker 1: on to say, meetings of this kind go on for 402 00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:52,080 Speaker 1: some time until the woman's infatuation or the man's boldness 403 00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:55,359 Speaker 1: bring attention to them, and the man is lynched for rape. 404 00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,840 Speaker 1: Every Negro lynched is called a big, burly black brute, 405 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,360 Speaker 1: when in fact, many of those who have thus been 406 00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:05,280 Speaker 1: dealt with had white men for their fathers. And we're 407 00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:09,080 Speaker 1: not only not black and burly, but we're sufficiently attractive 408 00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:11,840 Speaker 1: for white girls of culture and refinement to fall in 409 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,000 Speaker 1: love with them. As is very well known to all, 410 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:20,240 Speaker 1: this Peace recommended that the white community quote, teach your 411 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:24,080 Speaker 1: men purity, and it concluded, you set yourselves down as 412 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:27,800 Speaker 1: a lot of carping hypocrites. In fact, you cry allowed 413 00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:30,320 Speaker 1: for the virtue of your women while you seek to 414 00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:33,640 Speaker 1: destroy the morality of ours. Don't ever think that your 415 00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:36,840 Speaker 1: women will remain pure while you are debauching ours. You 416 00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,639 Speaker 1: sow the seed, the harvest will come in due time. 417 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:44,159 Speaker 1: There is a lot to unpack with this editorial. In 418 00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:48,200 Speaker 1: white society, relationships between white men and black women were 419 00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:51,880 Speaker 1: sort of an open secret. Alex Manly himself was descended 420 00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:55,359 Speaker 1: from former North Carolina Governor Charles Manly and a woman 421 00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:58,919 Speaker 1: who was enslaved in the governor's household. But it's not 422 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:02,520 Speaker 1: accurate to suggests that relationships between white men and black 423 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:05,960 Speaker 1: women were all consensual, especially those that had taken place 424 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,520 Speaker 1: during slavery, And we're between between a free white man 425 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:13,680 Speaker 1: and an enslaved black woman. Even after the end of slavery, 426 00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:17,919 Speaker 1: there were still substantial innate power differences to consider, especially 427 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:22,560 Speaker 1: between white men and black women's. Regardless of all that, 428 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:27,080 Speaker 1: this editorial spread well beyond the Daily Records readership. It's 429 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,639 Speaker 1: suggestion that a white woman would have a consensual relationship 430 00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:34,000 Speaker 1: with a black man sparked outrage among the white community. 431 00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:37,679 Speaker 1: The newspaper was evicted from its downtown Wilmington's offices and 432 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,840 Speaker 1: had to relocate to the black owned Love and Charity Hall. 433 00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:45,480 Speaker 1: Democratic newspapers across the state, including their Raleigh News and 434 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:49,560 Speaker 1: Observer and the Wilmington's Messenger, reported on the Daily Records 435 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:54,199 Speaker 1: editorial under headlines that focused on the pieces purported slander 436 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:58,239 Speaker 1: and defamation of white women. The coverage also suggested that 437 00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:01,440 Speaker 1: Manly himself must have been involved with some poor white 438 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 1: man's wife and was writing from his own experience. This 439 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:09,560 Speaker 1: Daily Record editorial then became a huge part of the 440 00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:14,360 Speaker 1: Democratic Party line on quote home protection. According to propaganda, 441 00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:17,760 Speaker 1: here in print was evidence of just how depraved and 442 00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,800 Speaker 1: dangerous black men were and how great a threat to 443 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:24,560 Speaker 1: white womanhood. As they focused their campaign efforts on the 444 00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:27,480 Speaker 1: urgent need to return North Carolina to a state of 445 00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:31,960 Speaker 1: white supremacy, Democrats started using the Daily Record editorial as 446 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:35,720 Speaker 1: a talking point in their political pamphlets and speeches. They 447 00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:40,040 Speaker 1: made explicit efforts to encourage racist violence. In the words 448 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:42,880 Speaker 1: of Alfred Moore Waddell, who would be a major part 449 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,760 Speaker 1: of the coup we're talking about next time, quote, we 450 00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:49,480 Speaker 1: will not live under these intolerable conditions. We will never 451 00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:52,480 Speaker 1: surrender to a ragged raffle of negroes, even if we 452 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,720 Speaker 1: have to choke the current of the Cape fear with carcasses. 453 00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,919 Speaker 1: And with that threat, we are going to pause the 454 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,800 Speaker 1: story and leave the rest of it for next time. 455 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:12,240 Speaker 1: Hey so much for joining us on this Saturday. Since 456 00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:14,360 Speaker 1: this episode is out of the archive, if you heard 457 00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:16,720 Speaker 1: an email address or Facebook U r L or something 458 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,199 Speaker 1: similar over the course of the show, that could be 459 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:24,080 Speaker 1: obsolete now. Our current email address is History Podcast at 460 00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:27,600 Speaker 1: I Heart radio dot com. 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