The only coup in American history was committed by racist Democrats:
en.wikipedia.org
The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898, occurred in Wilmington, North Carolina following the events of Nov. 10, 1898, and is considered a turning point in North Carolina politics following Reconstruction. Originally labeled a race riot, it is now also termed a coup d'etat.[1] This incident is the only instance of a municipal government being overthrown in US history.[2] The Wilmington Insurrection was the illegal seizure of power from an elected government by white supremacists, who used, among their many weapons, a Gatling gun mounted on a wagon and photographed themselves in their activities. Governor Daniel Lindsay Russell and President William McKinley, who were well-informed of these events, did nothing in response.
Wilmington, then the largest city in the state, had a majority-black population, large number of black professionals and a strong, biracial Republican Party. In the 1894 and 1896 elections, North Carolina’s Populist Party fused with the Republican Party to gain control of the state government; they were known as the Fusionists. The Fusionists won the elections. During the 1898 election, however, the Democratic Party was able to gain back government control due to Daniel L. Russell's inability to satisfy both the Populist and Republican parties.[3]
The next step for the Democratic Party, in an effort to gain back full control of Wilmington, was to kick Alexander Manly, editor of Wilmington's Daily Record, the state's only black-owned newspaper, out of the city and discontinue printing. For some time, Josephus Daniels, editor of the Raleigh News and Observer, was using Wilmington as a symbol for “Negro domination.” Many newspapers were also publishing pictures and stories implying that African Americans were raping white women. Manly refuted the charges claiming they were all consensual relationships and suggested "white men be more protective of their women against sexual advances from males of all races." By doing so, the white supremacists used the information to their advantage, making it an opportunity for violence against the black community.[4]
On November 10, 1898, the Committee of Colored Citizens, a group of politicians and leaders of the African American community, was supposed to present a report to the Committee of Twenty-Five, white supremacists, on their decision concerning Manly. When the report was not received by 7:30 a.m. that morning, Alfred Moore Waddell met a group of white businessmen and former Confederate soldiers,[5] all of them white supremacists planning to re-establish the Democratic Party, at the Wilmington Light Infantry armory. By 8:00 a.m., Waddell was leading them to the Daily Record office where they destroyed everything and burned down the building. [6] By this time, Manly, along with many others, had fled Wilmington for safety or hid. Throughout the rest of the day, constant riots and unnecessary shots were being fired all through Wilmington. The estimated number of deaths ranges from six to 100. Because of incomplete records by the hospital, churches and coroner's office, the exact number remains highly uncertain.[7]
Waddell and the mob then forced white Republican Mayor Silas P. Wright and other members of the city government (both black and white) to resign (they would not be up for re-election until 1899). A new city council elected Waddell to take over as mayor by 4 p.m. that day. [6]
Subsequent to usurping power, Democrats (see North Carolina General Assembly of 1899-1900) passed the first Jim Crow laws for North Carolina. The Democrats had established martial law for African Americans in North Carolina and had thus forged a template applied far beyond the state's borders for at least fifty years. Many of the rights blacks had secured after the Civil War were removed from the legal codes. It would not be until the African-American Civil Rights Movement several generations later that African Americans would regain their civil rights.
The insurrection had been planned by a group of nine conspirators that included Hugh MacRae. He later donated land to New Hanover County outside Wilmington for a park that is still named for him and in which stands a plaque in his honor that does not mention his role in the 1898 insurrection.
[edit] Election of 1900
In 1900, a second "white supremacy" political campaign cemented the Democrats' domination and elected Charles B. Aycock as governor. Again, by use of pictures implying "Negro domination," many whites (including the white Republicans who had earlier worked with the Populist Party in the 1894 and 1896 elections) were frightened by the pictures, eventually swaying their votes.
The night before the election, Waddell was quoted in a speech stating: "You are Anglo-Saxons. You are armed and prepared and you will do your duty…Go to the polls tomorrow, and if you find the negro out voting, tell him to leave the polls and if he refuses, kill him, shoot him down in his tracks. We shall win tomorrow if we have to do it with guns." The Democratic Party won by a landslide.[8]
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And before liberals say all the racist Dems in the south became Republicans let me point out:
Jimmy Carter, who started out as a segregationist and Lester Maddox Democrat never left the Democratic party
Al Gore and his Daddy never left Democratic party
Bill Clinton and his mentor J William Fulbright never left the Democratic party
Robert Byrd and Sam Ervin never left the Democratic party
h/t Confederateyankee |
