VOLUME 98 - NUMBER 44
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2019
TELEPHONE 919-682-2913 PRICE 50 CENTS
Marker describing
1898 violence as 'coup’
dedicated
By Martha Waggoner
RALEIGH (AP) - The state of North Carolina is moving away
from using the phrase race riot to describe the violent overthrow of
the Wilmington government in 1898 and is instead using the word
coup on the highway historical marker that will commemorate the
dark event.
The heading on the marker reads Wilmington Coup, but the origi
nally approved text referred to a race riot, which eventually was de
leted.
You don’t call it that anymore because the African Americans
weren’t rioting, said Ansley Herring Wegner, administrator of the
North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program, said Nov. 7.
They were being massacred.
In 1898, white Democrats violently overthrew the fusion gov
ernment of legitimately elected blacks and white Republicans in
Wilmington. The Democrats burned and killed their way to power in
what’s viewed as a flashpoint for the Jim Crow era of segregation and
the only successful coup d’etat in American history.
The marker, which was dedicated Nov. 8, stands outside the
Wilmington Light Infantry building, where the mob of white suprem
acists gathered before they marched to The Daily Record, the Afri
can American newspaper, and burned it to the ground. Alfred Moore
Waddell, who led the march, took over as mayor.
The ceremony included a moment of silence for those killed in
the coup, the StarNews of Wilmington reported . The names of the
10 people to have been killed were read aloud, each accompanied by
the chiming of bells.
The highway marker for the editor of the paper, Alex Manly, in
cludes the phrase race riot, but it was dedicated 25 years ago.
Meanwhile in Chapel Hill, a temporary logo has been placed over
one of the plaques at the University of North Carolina football sta
dium that’s dedicated to a man who was a coup leader. A newspaper
report at the time said Kenan Sr. was in charge of the machine gun
used during the coup.
News outlets report that photos this week show the logo covering
Kenan’s name.
The original text for the 1898 marker, approved in December
2017, included Waddell’s name and made other references that the
public found offensive, Wegner said. The committee of historians
that approves the language for markers went back to work and ap
proved new text in the spring of 2018, Wegner said.
One of the people unhappy with the original text was Deborah
Dicks Maxwell, president of the New Hanover County branch of the
NAACP. She was especially upset that the original language said the
violence left up to 60 blacks dead because it’s unclear how many
black people died.
We’ll never know how many people died, she said. Black lives
didn’t matter at that time in terms of reporting or documentation.
The highway markers, known as history on a stick, have strict
space limits - typically five to six lines of 25 characters each for
3-inch letters. The coup marker has 1.5-inch letters to allow more
text.
The revised marker deletes the names of Waddell and Manly,
since he has own marker. When you have so few words, you’ve got
to choose the best ones, Wegner said.
Maxwell hopes the marker will help the world to understand that
it wasn’t a riot, she said.
We need to educate our children that this did happen - and the
general public, Maxwell said; A lot of things that happen to African
Americans are hidden swept under a rug. We need to reveal all parts
of our history as a country.
Still unknown? Many have yet to form opinions on Warren
Maryland lawmaker:
Bills considered to
resolve HBCU case
By Brian Witte
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - A Maryland lawmaker
says legislation is being considered to resolve a long-
running lawsuit in federal court over program dis
parities between four historically black colleges and
traditionally white colleges.
Del. Charles Sydnor, a Baltimore County Demo
crat, said Nov. 8 he is working with other lawmakers
on proposals for a settlement of at least $577 million.
That’s the amount that an attorney representing the
HBCUs has recommended.
Sydnor spoke at a news conference to discuss a
rally next week calling for a fair resolution.
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has offered to settle
the lawsuit for $200 million over 10 years.
House Speaker Adrienne Jones has urged Hogan
to settle the case for $577 million. Hogan responded
that lawmakers could find ways to reach the higher
amount in the upcoming budget process.
By Will Weissert
RALIEGH (AP) - Ron Wen knew Elizabeth Warren was running
for president, but not much else.
“We hear one or two things about 'Medicare for All,’” the 52-year-
old technical marketing professional said about Warren’s universal
health care plan as he waited for a town hall with the Massachusetts
senator to begin inside a packed high school gym in North Carolina’s
capital. “You always get the sound bites. You need to just go deeper.”
Warren has risen in the polls for months, among the front-runners
now in the 2020 Democratic primary and finding herself portrayed by
comedian Kate McKinnon on “Saturday Night Live.”
For many people, however, Warren is still a relative unknown,
even among those who have begun paying closer attention with vot
ing beginning in under three months.
Nearly one-quarter of Americans say they don’t know enough
about Warren to have an opinion, according to a recent poll from
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The
same poll shows that just about 1 in 10 Americans say they don’t
know enough about rivals Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders.
Biden was a two-term vice president and Vermont Sen. Sanders
sought the White House four years ago, when he climbed from a
virtual national unknown to credible challenger to Hillary Clinton for
the Democratic nomination. Still, even among Democrats, more say
they don’t know enough about Warren, 16% versus 9% for Biden and
8% for Sanders, according to the poll.
An October Quinnipiac University poll showed 23% of Ameri
cans saying they hadn’t heard enough about Warren, including 18%
of Democrats. That was down from 31% of all Americans and 28%
of Democrats in Quinnipiac’s December 2018 poll, but still shows
she has work to do to boost her name recognition.
It’s both a challenge and an opportunity for Warren. She must still
introduce herself to voters, but, perhaps unlike some of her competi
tors, there’s also room to increase her support.
It’s a counterintuitive situation for someone who has become
known lately for attracting giant crowds in places like Seattle, St.
Paul, Minnesota and Manhattan . Warren’s campaign acknowledges
that she trails Biden and Sanders in name recognition. But Warren
says that’s why North Carolina is the 28th state she’s visited as she
tries to build a grassroots movement nationwide. That often means
staying behind at events for hours and taking 75,000 “selfies” with
attendees.
Warren drew around 3,500 people in Raleigh, a raucous crowd
that thunderously stomped its feet on the wooden bleachers. Still, she
was in the Research Triangle, where many people are
college-educated, relatively affluent and more likely to be Democrat
ic leaning - a key center of support for progressive Democrats such
as Warren.
“She has amazing policies, but I think what happens with a lot ol
people is they aren’t looking at the specifics of policy and they vote
based on emotion,” said Premi Singh, a 40-year-old high school Eng
lish teacher from Morrisville, outside Raleigh. Singh said that, like
Clinton in 2016, Warren may face a tougher climb to make a personal
connection with voters because she’s a woman who might be easily
dismissed as overly professorial.
“We’ve gotten so used to reality television, not just with Donald
Trump but with everything,” Singh said. “Everything has to be excit
ing and everything has to be so filled with drama that our capacity to
handle substantive discussions is more difficult.”
On “SNL,” McKinnon plays up Warren’s wonkish tendencies but
also uses physical comedy to spoof the candidate’s high-energy ap
proach to town halls, where she runs on stage and implores the audi
ence to stay positive.
“I am in my natural habitat, a public school on the weekend,’'
McKinnon’s Elizabeth Warren crowed with kicks and air punches to
open a recent episode.
The real-life Warren used parts of a McKinnon sketch spliced with
actual footage of the candidate calling to thank small donors in an
online ad she tweeted to her 3.5 million followers.
Logo covers UNO stadium
plaque honoring man with
racist ties
CHAPEL HILL (AP) - A temporary logo has been placed ovei
one of the plaques at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil
stadium that’s dedicated to a man who was a leader of a violent conf
d’etat in 1898.
News outlets report that photos this week showing the logo cover
ing the name of William Rand Kenan Sr.
Last year, then-Chancellor Carol Folt said the university would re
move references to Kenan and focus on his son, William Rand Kenar
Jr., who paid to have the stadium dedicated to his parents’ memory.
A historical highway marker was being dedicated Nov. 8 to com
memorate the 1898 coup in which white Democrats overthrew the
government of African Americans and Republicans in Wilmington.
A newspaper report at the time said Kenan Sr. was in charge of the
machine gun used during the coup.