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Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky. As a rule,

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Speaker 1: people are afraid of change. With change comes uncertainty, of

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Speaker 1: feeling that life is out of control. As creatures of habit,

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Speaker 1: the status quo feels safer, and there are often consequences

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Speaker 1: from prior actions to consider. It's easy to see that

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Speaker 1: fear can be a strong motivator. Such was the case

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Speaker 1: in Louisiana in eighteen seventy two. Like the rest of

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Speaker 1: the South, the end of the Civil War brought economic, social,

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Speaker 1: and political changes known as the Reconstruction Era. White Southerners

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Speaker 1: struggled to adjust to life that didn't include slavery or

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Speaker 1: Confederates shion. As the nation's political powers began to shift,

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Speaker 1: some felt that elections were their only voice. Eighteen seventy

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Speaker 1: two was also the year the gubernatorial election in Louisiana

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Speaker 1: pitted lawyer and conservative Democrat John mcgennery against Republican Senator

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Speaker 1: William Kellogg. Before election day, rumors of intended voter fraud

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Speaker 1: began to circulate, adding to the turmoil and resentment. It

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Speaker 1: came as no surprise then, that when mckennery was declared

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Speaker 1: the winner. Republicans contested the accuracy of the ballots and

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Speaker 1: filed a complaint. Federal court decided in the Republican's favor

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Speaker 1: and reversed the election results, putting Kellogg in power, and

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Speaker 1: some members of the public thought the federal government had

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Speaker 1: not only interfered, they had dismissed the will of the voters.

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Speaker 1: Back then, the Republican Party was considered liberal, and it

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Speaker 1: wasn't particularly popular with the conservative segments of the South.

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Speaker 1: Lincoln had been a Republican after all, and Kellogg's political

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Speaker 1: base was primarily black, which didn't go over well with

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Speaker 1: some Louisiana's population, who harbored resentment from being on a

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Speaker 1: losing end of the war. In an attempt to keep

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Speaker 1: some sense of control, the Democrats ignored the Republican victory

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Speaker 1: and established a shadow government. In January of eighteen seventy three,

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Speaker 1: mcgennery called upon the volunteer militia to attack the Metropolitan

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Speaker 1: Police and overthrow Kellogg's government by force. When the coup failed,

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Speaker 1: the police broke up the shadow government, though no arrests

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Speaker 1: were made and mcgennery went unpunished. With Kellogg's enforcement of

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Speaker 1: civil rights legislation. Some white people in the South harbored

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Speaker 1: of fear that black people would soon retaliate and dominate

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Speaker 1: their way of life. The White League formed and assembled

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Speaker 1: enough men to defeat the state militia and the Metropolitan Police.

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Speaker 1: The group released propaganda playing on citizens fears regarding the

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Speaker 1: state's direction. A call for volunteers to rise up began

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Speaker 1: in Earnest, and fi hundred men, many of whom were

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Speaker 1: bitter soldiers from the war, signed up. Others who had

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Speaker 1: been raised to believe in the tyranny of the federal

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Speaker 1: government also joined. Word leaked to the Metropolitan Police that

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Speaker 1: the League planned on receiving a large shipment of arms

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Speaker 1: on September four of eighteen seventy four. A confrontation was

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Speaker 1: brewing at the worst possible time, during an outbreak of

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Speaker 1: yellow fever. On September, the League announced a meeting of

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Speaker 1: the people at the intersections of Royal and Canal Streets

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Speaker 1: and Saint Charles Avenue. Five thousand people showed up, each

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Speaker 1: chanting and calling for Kellogg's resignation. Kellogg refused. The White

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Speaker 1: League promptly severed the telegraph lines. The mob headed downtown,

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Speaker 1: where they clashed with the Metropolitan Police. Within fifteen minutes,

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Speaker 1: the League had control of the city. Eighteen people were

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Speaker 1: dead and countless others injured. With the city overtaken, the

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Speaker 1: League set up their own government, with the risk of

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Speaker 1: yellow fever looming. The federal government arrived soon after and

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Speaker 1: reinstated Kellogg as governor. Despite the second coup's failure, the

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Speaker 1: White League had done what they had set out to accomplish.

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Speaker 1: The Metropolitan Police force was shattered, and national opinion on

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Speaker 1: Kellogg was split. Federal government was the only thing keeping

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Speaker 1: him in power. But this conflict wasn't the first attempted

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Speaker 1: coup on American soil, and sadly it wouldn't be the last.

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Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Bogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows. The port city

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Speaker 1: along the Cape Fear River had seemingly adjusted to life

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Speaker 1: after the Civil War. Are Many emuncipated people found the

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Speaker 1: town of Wilmington, North Carolina, a good place to call home.

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Speaker 1: They set up shops alongside wide owned businesses, purchased fine

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Speaker 1: homes with lace curtains and pianos, and some were wealthy

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Speaker 1: enough to have servants. They found jobs as health inspectors

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Speaker 1: and sorted and delivered mail alongside white female clerks. All

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Speaker 1: but one of the city's restaurants were black. Owned of

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Speaker 1: the barbers were black, and so were thirty percent of

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Speaker 1: the skilled laborers. The black police officers could arrest white people.

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Speaker 1: The jailer corner and county treasurer were black. President Benjamin

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Speaker 1: Harrison appointed John C. Darcy, a black Republican, as the

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Speaker 1: federal customs collector for the port of Wilmington's African American

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Speaker 1: holidays were celebrated without fear of retaliation. The city had

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Speaker 1: one of the highest literacy rates among black people in

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Speaker 1: the state, while almost a quarter of the state's white

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Speaker 1: population was still illiterate. In eighteen black and white people

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Speaker 1: alike packed the Opera House side by side to hear poetry,

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Speaker 1: listened to choirs, and hear Patrick Henry's speech on liberty

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Speaker 1: and Death. That's not to say racism didn't exist. It did,

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Speaker 1: but Wilmington had a reputation of being one of the

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Speaker 1: most progressive cities for its time when it came to race.

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Speaker 1: Alexander Manley was a North Carolina native. Those who passed

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Speaker 1: him on the street probably assumed he was white, but

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Speaker 1: alex Manly had both white and black family. His grandmother

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Speaker 1: had been an enslaved woman the property of his grandfather,

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Speaker 1: the former state governor Charles Manly. Charles had released all

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Speaker 1: his children from slavery and granted them farmland and farming equipment.

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Speaker 1: According to the eight nine census, Alex grew up in

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Speaker 1: a successful working class household. He attended the Hampton Normal

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Speaker 1: and Agriculture Institute in Virginia. When he returned home, though,

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Speaker 1: finding work in his hometown of Rally proved difficult, so

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Speaker 1: he moved to Wilmington's. There he found social, political, and

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Speaker 1: economic prospects more to his liking. Instead of becoming a laborer,

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Speaker 1: he set up the city's only black newspaper, called The

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Speaker 1: Daily Record. By the mid eighteen nineties, Alex Manly dove

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Speaker 1: into the political foray, writing articles that challenged white power structures,

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Speaker 1: and for some the paper posed note threat. It even

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Speaker 1: had plenty of white advertisers who called Manly a friend.

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Speaker 1: By the lady eighteen nineties, the Daily Record had become

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Speaker 1: immensely popular. Manly was appointed to Deputy Register of Deeds

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Speaker 1: and he taught Sunday school. He had even fallen in

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Speaker 1: love and was set to marry for Manly. Life was

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Speaker 1: good right up until August of eight. That's when one

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Speaker 1: Rebecca Latimer felt In, a prominent societal woman who believed

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Speaker 1: in prison reform, women's suffrage, and white supremacy, gave a

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Speaker 1: speech on lynching as a form of punishment for black

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Speaker 1: men who assaulted white women. She also insisted that giving

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Speaker 1: black men the right to vote led directly to these assaults,

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Speaker 1: and the Conservative Democratic Party delighted in her speech and

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Speaker 1: in newspapers printing it. They knew that small fires often grow.

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Speaker 1: Her words helped fuel fear among the ill informed white

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Speaker 1: population and furthered their political agenda to reduce black rights

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Speaker 1: and equality. We won't go into all of what felt

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Speaker 1: in speech entailed, but it's safe to say that it

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Speaker 1: did not sit well with Alex Manly. He debated, posting

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Speaker 1: his response, and, deciding it was worth the risk, fired

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Speaker 1: back with an editorial in his own paper. In it,

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Speaker 1: he called out Felton's and other white writers and speakers

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Speaker 1: racist pretense that only black men, or based on the

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Speaker 1: guilt of a few, all black men, are criminals who

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Speaker 1: commit assault. He turned her own words against her, agreeing

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Speaker 1: with Felton that women should receive better educations in order

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Speaker 1: to prevent abuse, and that white women should in general

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Speaker 1: be better treated by white men, cannily pointing out not

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Speaker 1: just Felton's racism, but her sexist placement of white women

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Speaker 1: as white men's property. And he addressed the larger cultural

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Speaker 1: discourse about interracial relationships, asserting the reality that white women

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Speaker 1: sometimes fall in love with black men. In the end,

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Speaker 1: his response was a lengthy and biding one, and the

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Speaker 1: city had never read anything like it. Democratic Party Chairman

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Speaker 1: Furnifold Simmons, who had been placed in charge of developing

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Speaker 1: a campaign strategy for North Carolina's election, saw an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to return power to the Democrats. He'd use the easiest

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Speaker 1: method possible, fear. He'd use Manly's response to seed discord

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Speaker 1: among the population about a potential black uprising. Since the

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Speaker 1: Republican Party had several black leaders, kindling a racial divide

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Speaker 1: would mean more votes for the predominantly white Democrats. Simmons

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Speaker 1: recruited media outlets sympathetic to his cause. Then he hired

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Speaker 1: speakers to spread rumors, fear, and misconceptions. One of those

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Speaker 1: men was Alfred Waddell, a former congressman and die hard

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Speaker 1: white supremacist adept at inciting racism, shaming so called race traders,

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Speaker 1: and painting the Republicans as liberals set out to destroy

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Speaker 1: white citizen's way of life. Waddell had a long reputation

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Speaker 1: for being combative and power hungry. During the Civil War,

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Speaker 1: he became part of the white Resistance, and while serving

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Speaker 1: as Congressman, he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

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Speaker 1: He had grown up wealthy, wanting for nothing. His family

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Speaker 1: hadn't been a stranger to politics either. His grandfather had

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Speaker 1: been a U. S. Supreme Court justice. Though Waddell had

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Speaker 1: once been in the political limelight as a lawyer, historian,

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Speaker 1: and public speaker, had long faded had long since faded

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Speaker 1: from the public eye. Simmons offer had put him back

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Speaker 1: into the spotlight, and Waddell wasted no opportunity to speak.

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Speaker 1: As the election approached, he employed a group known as

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Speaker 1: the White Government Union, who began demanding that every white

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Speaker 1: man in Wilmington join any method would do, shame, fear,

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Speaker 1: and even bullying those who befriended or stood alongside the

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Speaker 1: black population. Under the beliefs that the Fusionist Republican political

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Speaker 1: party reforms had been fixed and that the laws favored

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Speaker 1: black people over white people. Nine men banded together, known

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Speaker 1: as the Secret Nine. They began to work closely with

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Speaker 1: Waddell to present the black community is insolent and disrespectful.

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Speaker 1: The Republican Party, due to their sympathy with the black community,

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Speaker 1: was effectively painted in the same light. That August, the

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Speaker 1: atmosphere in the city shifted and tension grew as thick

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Speaker 1: as the humidity. Neighbors, once friendly, began to look at

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Speaker 1: each other differently. Manly fully expected a backlash from his

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Speaker 1: rebuttal to Felton little came. Although he could feel a

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Speaker 1: storm brewing, everyone could. What they didn't know was just

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Speaker 1: how catastrophic it would be. The Winchester Repeating Arms Company

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Speaker 1: in New Jersey received a couple of alarming requests. In

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Speaker 1: mid September. Two men in Wilmington's placed an order for

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Speaker 1: dozens of sixteen shot pistols. The company manager had read

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Speaker 1: the headlines about the upcoming election. Given the party tactics

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Speaker 1: and placement in the South, he figured a race war

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Speaker 1: was brewing. He refused to fulfill the orders and promptly

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Speaker 1: contacted the Rally newspaper. Unfortunately, the paper saw a headline

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Speaker 1: grabbing story and printed the company's concern as proof that

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Speaker 1: black men were buying guns and planning and uprising against

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Speaker 1: the white community. The odd thing, though the manager never

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Speaker 1: revealed who the would be customers were. A month later,

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Speaker 1: Democrats held a rally in Fayetteville. Among the attendees were

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Speaker 1: three hundred Red Shirts, a paramilitary supremacist group that openly

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Speaker 1: engaged in acts of violence to keep the Democrats in power.

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Speaker 1: One of their tactics was to show up at the

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Speaker 1: polls wearing red shirts to intimidate black men and white

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Speaker 1: Republicans from voting. One of the speakers openly chastised white

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Speaker 1: men in North Carolina for not burning down family's paper

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Speaker 1: and lynching him. Four days later, Waddell followed up with

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Speaker 1: his own speech on white supremacy, stating that race was

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Speaker 1: the most important issue in the upcoming election. His rallying

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Speaker 1: cry was that the white men would never surrender to

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Speaker 1: black authority, even if they had to fill the Cape

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Speaker 1: Fear River with bodies to maintain their freedom. The rallies

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Speaker 1: became nothing short of brimstone and fire at a fever

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Speaker 1: pitch calling for white people to stand up against the

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Speaker 1: black community. Within days, late night attacks began as men

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Speaker 1: raided the homes of black people and white sympathizers, ostensibly

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Speaker 1: looking first dashes of weapons. Governor Russell ordered an immediate

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Speaker 1: cease of the raids and attacks instead of a decrease

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Speaker 1: in crimes. The call for peace incensed the Red Shirts

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Speaker 1: and other groups like them, spurring a fresh wave of violence.

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Speaker 1: Continuing to fan the flames, Simmons spoke before a large crowd,

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Speaker 1: telling them that Alexander Manley's letter was instigating black men

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Speaker 1: to rise up, and that he had insulted the purity

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Speaker 1: of white women and must be dealt with. The crowd

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Speaker 1: chanted lynch him. Simmons assigned twenty five Red Shirt members

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Speaker 1: to be observers at the polls. Their job was to

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Speaker 1: strong arm all white men to vote Democrat and prevent

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Speaker 1: black men from voting at all. Later, they planned to

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Speaker 1: remove Republican ballots and replace them with votes for the Democrats.

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Speaker 1: Waddell continued to speak at rallies, shouting that white men

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Speaker 1: should be armed and ready to do their duty in

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Speaker 1: preventing the black vote by force if necessary. Simmons authorized

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Speaker 1: him to select a group of twenty five citizens, two

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Speaker 1: of whom were reverends to assist in getting the word out,

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Speaker 1: called the Committee of twenty five. They knew that the

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Speaker 1: more people who repeated their rhetoric, the more believable that

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Speaker 1: rhetoric would become. By now, so much of the city

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Speaker 1: had lost sight of the real issues behind the democrats

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Speaker 1: agenda for tax laws, stockholder shares, and shifting railroad regulations

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Speaker 1: that it was difficult for those with holdings to capitalize

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Speaker 1: on them, but making race the only issue was the

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Speaker 1: easiest path to victory at the Poles. November eighth election

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Speaker 1: day started sunny and clear. When the polls opened at

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Speaker 1: seven a m. Anxious voters were already waiting. Of the

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Speaker 1: one thousand, four hundred and nineteen registered black voters, eight

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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty went to the Poles. To avoid tensions

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Speaker 1: that might very well build throughout the day, people voted

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Speaker 1: early and promptly went home. The Red Shirts, however, walked

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Speaker 1: the streets carrying firearms and kerosene as means to intimidate.

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Speaker 1: Black men. Weren't the only ones targeted. The Red Shirts

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Speaker 1: were after black sympathizers statewide. White and black voters, having

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Speaker 1: been convinced trouble would surely start at the polls, carried

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Speaker 1: weapons just in case, and rally Republican Governor Daniel Lindsay

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Speaker 1: Russell received numerous death threats for him, voting day required

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Speaker 1: both preparation and protection. He took the train to Wilmington's,

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Speaker 1: telling a waiting reporter that he realized voting might just

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Speaker 1: get him killed. Two men accompanied Russell, one of whom

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Speaker 1: was a commander in the Wilmington Light Infantry, and despite

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Speaker 1: the bodyguards, the governor became the target of taunts. Someone

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00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:38,760
Speaker 1: in the jeering crowd asked him what he thought about

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Speaker 1: the anticipated violence from the black community. All wrought, he replied,

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00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:48,000
Speaker 1: his return trip proved to be more perilous. They had

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Speaker 1: been informed that Red Shirt's plan to intercept him on

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Speaker 1: one of the train stops, so he took a different route.

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Speaker 1: It didn't work, though, and the group caught up with

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Speaker 1: them just north of Wilmington's. He remained jovial and the

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Speaker 1: terrorists let him go. At the next stop, another group

256
00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:08,560
Speaker 1: of Red Shirts wasn't as accommodating. They stormed the train,

257
00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:11,920
Speaker 1: loudly calling for the governor and threatening to lynch him.

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Speaker 1: Like the black men he supported, Russell took refuge in

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Speaker 1: the baggage car until the men left. His trip to

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Speaker 1: the governor's mansion was equally difficult. Extra bodyguards and authorities

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Speaker 1: had to escort him past a mob calling for his execution.

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00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:32,840
Speaker 1: Guards stood outside his home until the mob disbanded. Yet,

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Speaker 1: despite the propaganda, there had been no shootings, no uprising.

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Speaker 1: People sighed in relief, thinking that now with voting over,

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Speaker 1: tensions would die down. Around nine p m. A hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty men surrounded the voting precinct. Some forced their

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Speaker 1: way inside, shoving the policeman on guard into a water

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00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:59,120
Speaker 1: barrel while holding the vote counters at gunpoint. Men stuffed

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Speaker 1: Democratic ballots into the ballot box. Two Democratic precinct judges

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Speaker 1: and a populous Democrat sat and took over counting the

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00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:11,840
Speaker 1: votes as though nothing had happened. The scenario played out

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00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:16,000
Speaker 1: in other precincts throughout the city, finally announcing the conservative

273
00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:19,480
Speaker 1: Democrats had swept the state in every single office that

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Speaker 1: had been up for election. The newly elected officials immediately

275
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Speaker 1: began the work of restoring only white men to appointed offices.

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Speaker 1: The next morning, the Wilmington's paper published an article calling

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Speaker 1: for all white men to show up at the courthouse

278
00:19:36,119 --> 00:19:41,119
Speaker 1: at eleven am, many citizens, especially those in the black community,

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00:19:41,359 --> 00:19:45,480
Speaker 1: realized that the trouble was far from over. In fact,

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00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:56,600
Speaker 1: the worst was yet to come. The newspaper reporter had

281
00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:59,200
Speaker 1: never seen so many people gathered at the court house.

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00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,800
Speaker 1: People jockeyed for a place to stand. Democratic stump speaker

283
00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:07,680
Speaker 1: Alfred Waddell stood before the crowd and delivered a lengthy speech.

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Speaker 1: He warned that the black man was still planning to

285
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:15,800
Speaker 1: overtake the city. He argued that the United States Constitution

286
00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:19,120
Speaker 1: had envisioned a government of enlightened men, and it would

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00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:22,879
Speaker 1: not stand for the inclusion of an inferior race. They

288
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:27,120
Speaker 1: must act now, he said. He put forth seven resolutions

289
00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:30,840
Speaker 1: that would prevent an imminent attack from the black community.

290
00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:34,119
Speaker 1: White people would no longer be ruled by black people,

291
00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:39,320
Speaker 1: he said, and only unscrupulous white men would associate with them.

292
00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:42,760
Speaker 1: He said that the black community was antagonistic and incapable

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00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:47,439
Speaker 1: of putting the community's interests first. Therefore, he continued to

294
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,640
Speaker 1: rant the majority of jobs held by black men were

295
00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:54,240
Speaker 1: to be turned over to white men. But he didn't

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Speaker 1: stop there. He said that the Daily Record was to

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00:20:57,359 --> 00:21:00,560
Speaker 1: cease immediately, that the printing press must be shipped out

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Speaker 1: of the city. Alex Manly should also be forever banished

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00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:07,480
Speaker 1: from the city for publishing such a vile and slanderous

300
00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:12,640
Speaker 1: article against their white women. Slyly he seated the idea

301
00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:16,400
Speaker 1: that in any other proper city, Manly would have already

302
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:21,040
Speaker 1: been lynched. The speech had been designed to incite fear

303
00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:25,000
Speaker 1: and hate, and it worked. The crowd began to call

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00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:29,720
Speaker 1: for Manly's death. Appearing to show compassion, Waddell told them

305
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:32,879
Speaker 1: that the paper editor had twenty four hours to obey

306
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:36,440
Speaker 1: if he dismantled the press and left the city. Waddell

307
00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:41,359
Speaker 1: said that white men should show some restraint. Having convinced

308
00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:43,800
Speaker 1: the white men that their black neighbors posed a threat

309
00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:47,879
Speaker 1: to their safety and livelihoods, Waddell presented his proclamation to

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Speaker 1: sign men added their names. While crowds gathered outside the

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Speaker 1: court house. One of Manly's white friends arrived at the

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00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:01,440
Speaker 1: paper and told him what had just happened. Since Manly

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00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:04,639
Speaker 1: passed for white, his friends supplied him with the money

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00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:07,760
Speaker 1: and passwords needed to get past the red Shirts guarding

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Speaker 1: roots in and out of the city. Manly easily passed

316
00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:15,399
Speaker 1: the checkpoints. One red shirt even invited him to the

317
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:18,280
Speaker 1: lynching they had planned for. The No Good newspaper owner,

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Speaker 1: Waddell and Simmons drew up a list of names of

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Speaker 1: non white leaders to inform them of the proclamation, including

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Speaker 1: one Native American. All told, there were seven names left

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00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:36,000
Speaker 1: off the list had been Federal customs collector John Darcy

322
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Speaker 1: and his deputy. Waddell, Simmons, and the other organizers knew

323
00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:45,359
Speaker 1: that including them might bring federal investigation. Armed Red Shirts

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Speaker 1: were sent to inform the rest of the men on

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Speaker 1: the list that they had until six p m. To

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00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:54,040
Speaker 1: show up at the court house. When they arrived, Waddell

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00:22:54,119 --> 00:22:58,000
Speaker 1: read the proclamation. They sat and stunned silence as he

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Speaker 1: informed them that they had until seven and thirty the

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Speaker 1: following morning to give him their response in writing. What

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Speaker 1: he didn't tell them was that he planned on reading

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Speaker 1: that response to a group of armed white supremacists half

332
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Speaker 1: an hour later. This had been the plan for months,

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Speaker 1: and on the morning of November tenth, the Red Shirts,

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00:23:19,119 --> 00:23:22,520
Speaker 1: secret nine and armed white citizens stood in the streets

335
00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:27,280
Speaker 1: waiting for Waddell's word. When no one arrived at Wadel's

336
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:30,000
Speaker 1: home with a letter of concession, he walked down the

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00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:33,399
Speaker 1: street to the waiting men. By now the crowd was

338
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:37,440
Speaker 1: five hundred strong. Once in front of the waiting mob,

339
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:41,120
Speaker 1: Waddell told them that the black leaders had ignored their request,

340
00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:45,720
Speaker 1: an intolerable act of defiance. The men cried out for

341
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:49,919
Speaker 1: Captain Thomas James, the commander of the Wilmington Light Infantry,

342
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,040
Speaker 1: to lead them to the Daily Records Office. It was

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00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:58,240
Speaker 1: time to stand up against the black community. James wanted

344
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 1: no part of the mob and said to telegraph to

345
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:05,080
Speaker 1: his superiors asking for advice. Relieved that his orders were

346
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:08,280
Speaker 1: to stay put and report back once the mob moved off,

347
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:13,480
Speaker 1: he returned to the crowd outside. Unfortunately, some of his men,

348
00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:18,160
Speaker 1: having believed what else lies, now, wanted to join the terrorists.

349
00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 1: To prevent his men from becoming part of the escalating problem,

350
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:28,000
Speaker 1: James ordered them to march around the field. Realizing the

351
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:31,959
Speaker 1: infantry wouldn't join them, Waddell led his mob to the newspaper.

352
00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:35,159
Speaker 1: By the time they reached the building, the crowd had

353
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:39,439
Speaker 1: grown to a thousand men. James sent the telegraph to

354
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:44,159
Speaker 1: his superior informing him of the situation. Soon Governor Russell

355
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:48,480
Speaker 1: heard the news and ordered the infantry to intervene. There

356
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:52,040
Speaker 1: was a problem though most of the infantry now sided

357
00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:57,119
Speaker 1: with the mob. The crowd of angry men vandalized the

358
00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:01,880
Speaker 1: newspaper then set it on fire. Afterward, Waddell led them

359
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,400
Speaker 1: back to the armory, where he suggested they had done

360
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:07,720
Speaker 1: their duty for now and to go home, knowing some

361
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 1: of them would not. While the majority did go home,

362
00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,639
Speaker 1: a few hundred men remained, convinced that they needed to

363
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:17,880
Speaker 1: search for the weapons that had been told the black

364
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:22,400
Speaker 1: community planned to use against them. Stoked on the hatred

365
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:26,200
Speaker 1: lies in mob mentality, the men marched into the city,

366
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:31,120
Speaker 1: targeting businesses that employed mostly black workers. Three black men

367
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:34,400
Speaker 1: were shot as they tried to flee. In another part

368
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:37,280
Speaker 1: of the city, six more black men were shot and killed.

369
00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:41,879
Speaker 1: The black community wasn't entirely unarmed, and they fired back,

370
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:47,400
Speaker 1: fueling the conspiracy that Waddell and Simmonds had started. Doctors

371
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:49,919
Speaker 1: and nurses rushed to tend to the injured black and

372
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:54,840
Speaker 1: white while the gunfire continued around them. A white reporter

373
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 1: found an injured black man and followed him as he fled.

374
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:00,960
Speaker 1: The man ran into a house with the reporter in pursuit.

375
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:05,880
Speaker 1: Inside he found three terrified women and one dead man

376
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 1: who had been shot several times. The reporter ran for help,

377
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:15,760
Speaker 1: and the injured man survived. Others weren't as fortunate. As

378
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:19,960
Speaker 1: the black community fled, the angry mob kept firing. When

379
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:22,320
Speaker 1: the streets were empty, the mob went from house to

380
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:25,760
Speaker 1: house looking for the armed black men and weapons that

381
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:30,439
Speaker 1: Simmons and Waddell had warned them about. Reports from that

382
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:35,399
Speaker 1: day are horrifying. One minister witnessed the reverend from another

383
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 1: church shooting at black residents. Corpses were scattered in the streets.

384
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:44,160
Speaker 1: By mid afternoon, most of the surviving black community had

385
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 1: fled the city. The mob, however, continued to search for

386
00:26:48,600 --> 00:27:00,280
Speaker 1: the invading Black army, chasing shadows that didn't exist. While

387
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,119
Speaker 1: the massacre continued, Waddell led a group of men to

388
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:07,080
Speaker 1: city Hall to complete the coup. They burst in, holding

389
00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:11,639
Speaker 1: the mayor, police chief, and alderman at gunpoint. Waddell leveled

390
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:15,880
Speaker 1: his gun at the mayor and demanded his resignation. By

391
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:19,119
Speaker 1: four p m. Waddell had declared himself the new mayor.

392
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: As his first order of business, he appointed a new

393
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 1: police chief and new city Alderman from the Committee of

394
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:31,639
Speaker 1: twenty five. When the magazine Collier's Weekly published an article

395
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: on the massacre, Wadell painted himself as a reluctant and

396
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:39,600
Speaker 1: non violent participant. He stated that he'd merely had been

397
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:42,800
Speaker 1: called upon to lead in a time of need, adding

398
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 1: that any violence had been accidental and purely in self defense.

399
00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:51,640
Speaker 1: In recounting what had happened at the Daily Record, Waddell

400
00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:54,199
Speaker 1: insisted he hadn't been the one to break down the

401
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:58,360
Speaker 1: door nor start the fire that he said had unintentionally

402
00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:03,040
Speaker 1: been set. Playing the part of a reluctant hero, he

403
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:06,440
Speaker 1: claimed that the events that followed were indeed the strangest

404
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:10,120
Speaker 1: had ever seen, but as mayor he was called upon

405
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:13,760
Speaker 1: to end the violence. He went on to say that

406
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:16,479
Speaker 1: he and the others broke no laws and had acted

407
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:20,880
Speaker 1: appropriately given the circumstances. The leaders of the black militia

408
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:23,199
Speaker 1: had been captured and had marched them down to the

409
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:26,119
Speaker 1: train station the next morning, where he had personally paid

410
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:29,439
Speaker 1: for their tickets out of town. Had he not intervened,

411
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:34,320
Speaker 1: he said, the others would surely have killed them. After

412
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:37,959
Speaker 1: the chaos, he falsely claimed that the remaining black citizens

413
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:40,800
Speaker 1: had faith in him and that they were happy that

414
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:46,120
Speaker 1: order had been restored. History and other recorded accounts do

415
00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: not support his claims of black residence starting a riot.

416
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 1: The aftermath of these tragic events doesn't offer a story

417
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:59,520
Speaker 1: book ending. When elections rolled round again, Wadell was re

418
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 1: elected it and served as Wilmington's mayor until in fact,

419
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:10,440
Speaker 1: all of his allies were re elected, and unlike in Louisiana,

420
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 1: no one from the federal government ever stepped in, including

421
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,960
Speaker 1: President McKinley, who claimed that he could not act without

422
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:22,520
Speaker 1: a call from the governor. Waddel, Simmons and their white

423
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:26,680
Speaker 1: supremacist groups had successfully pulled off the only coup diacht

424
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 1: to occur on American soil. They overturned votes they didn't

425
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 1: like and toppled a multiracial government with violence. Under Waddell's orders,

426
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:41,480
Speaker 1: upwards of sixty black citizens were murdered, all in the

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Speaker 1: name of political control. There's more to this story. Stick

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00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 1: around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.

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Speaker 1: It's room that over six hundred attempts were made on

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Speaker 1: his life. He once said that if surviving assassination attempts

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Speaker 1: were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal.

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Speaker 1: How many of those attempts were allegedly by the CIA,

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00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:19,240
Speaker 1: isn't exactly clear the bane of many world leaders. His

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00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:24,320
Speaker 1: reign spanned over eight US presidencies. Though he was aging,

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00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:28,200
Speaker 1: he still had plenty of aspirations and held high hopes

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00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 1: for his country. He used to like walking the streets alone,

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00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 1: giving him time to think and reflect. Now he had

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00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:39,800
Speaker 1: become a hunted man, with over twenty different addresses. He

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00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:43,000
Speaker 1: had overthrown the country's a military dictatorship in a coup

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00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:46,000
Speaker 1: when he was thirty three years old and ruled for

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00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:49,640
Speaker 1: fifty more years. In the time of his rule, he

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00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: had created schools and reduced illiteracy. Hospitals were built, improving healthcare.

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00:30:55,960 --> 00:31:00,240
Speaker 1: The countryside now had electricity, and legal discrimination was a

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00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:04,800
Speaker 1: thing of the past. The positives didn't outweigh the negatives,

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00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:10,160
Speaker 1: though newspapers that opposed his views were shut down. The

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00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 1: amount of land any one person could own was severely limited.

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00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: Private businesses were banished, and he governed all matters of

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00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 1: housing and distribution of consumer goods. When it came to challengers,

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00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:28,800
Speaker 1: thousands of his political opponents were jailed, though he had

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00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 1: once himself run in an election. He then declared that

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00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:37,160
Speaker 1: any that were not under his control were illegal. In short,

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00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:40,000
Speaker 1: he had become the very thing he had sought to overthrow.

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00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 1: Despite the advances in education and healthcare, his people lived

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00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 1: in poverty, and even while living in deplorable conditions, many

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00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 1: believed him nothing short of a messiah. He told his

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00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 1: people that he lived frugally, though the opposite was true.

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Speaker 1: Forbes magazine listed him as one of richest rulers, which

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00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 1: he immediately and angrily declared a lie. He owned yachts

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Speaker 1: and twenty different residences. Among the amenities and his homes

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00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:15,200
Speaker 1: were bowling alleys, saunas, basketball courts, seaside pools, a lagoon

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00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:19,600
Speaker 1: with dolphins, and an abundance of sea turtles. He even

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00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:22,520
Speaker 1: had a home where he met up with his countless mistresses.

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Speaker 1: Having successfully converted his country into a one party socialist state,

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00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 1: he began backing Marxist governments. In nineteen sixty President Eisenhower

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00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 1: authorized the CIA to overthrow his government as retaliation. In

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00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,600
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one, he managed to convince a large group

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00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:46,880
Speaker 1: of Americans to protest American imperialism in Eisenhower as well.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't until after an instant involving the explosion of

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Speaker 1: a French vessel, an alignment with Russia and the threat

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00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:57,920
Speaker 1: of nuclear war that he reportedly found himself the target

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00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:02,719
Speaker 1: of assassinations when the CIA bombed three of his air fields,

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00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:07,360
Speaker 1: he told his people the news was false. Later he

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00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 1: claimed that the U S had purposely engaged in biowarfare

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00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:14,800
Speaker 1: against him. When an outbreak of dengie fever hit. It

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00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:18,560
Speaker 1: was blame shifting, sure, but perhaps he had grown a

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00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 1: little fearful. His worst fear was being poisoned. He had

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00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:25,440
Speaker 1: his food grown locally and had his own cow to

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00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:29,040
Speaker 1: supply all his dairy products. A few of the plots

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00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 1: to assassinate him involved of former classmate with a plan

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00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: to shoot him in broad daylight as sniper, poisoned tea,

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Speaker 1: and cooperation between the CIA, the mafia, and a former mistress.

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Speaker 1: The mistress had been given pills laced with poison, and

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Speaker 1: she put them into a jar of face cream. She

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00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:50,480
Speaker 1: couldn't quite get the cream off the pills and decided

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00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:52,800
Speaker 1: that placing pills in his mouth covered in cold cream

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00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:56,840
Speaker 1: wouldn't work, so she flushed them down the toilet and confessed.

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Speaker 1: All the attempts killed, and he lived to the age

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Speaker 1: of ninety. When he did die, no cause of death

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00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:11,280
Speaker 1: was given, though many of his people despised him, others

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00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:15,560
Speaker 1: adored him and mourned his passing. The biographer said the

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00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:18,360
Speaker 1: ruler was hard working and had a sense of humor,

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00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 1: but added that he was a bad loser, through temper

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00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:27,200
Speaker 1: tantrums and was vindictive. Though he's gone, the United States

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00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:31,319
Speaker 1: still has an embargo against the country he ruled, and

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Speaker 1: that man Fidel Castro. American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum.

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Speaker 1: This episode was written by Michelle Muto with researcher Robin Miniter,

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00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:51,799
Speaker 1: and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive

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00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:56,200
Speaker 1: producers Aaron Minky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn

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00:34:56,239 --> 00:34:59,360
Speaker 1: more about the show, visit grim and mild dot com.

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00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:01,880
Speaker 1: For more PA podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the

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00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:05,239
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

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Speaker 1: your podcasts. M M HM