WILMINGTON RACE RIOT
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2006 -f THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
CHARLES B. AYCOCK
Charles Brantley Aycock was
born in Wayne County on Nov. 1,
1859, the youngest of 10 children.
After graduating from the Univer
sity of North Carolina in 1880, he
practiced law in Goldsboro and
became involved in Democratic
Party politics. As North Carolina’s
governor from 1901 to 1905, he
championed education and white
supremacy. He died in 1912 while
delivering a speech on education.
COURTESY UNC LIBRARY
JOSEPHUS DANIELS
Josephus Daniels was born in
Washington, N.C., in 1862. His fa
ther, a shipbuilder for the Confed
eracy, was killed before the child
was 3. His mother soon moved the
family to Wilson, where she worked
for the post office. At age 16, he
entered the world of journalism; by
18 he had bought the Advance, a
paper serving Wilson, Nash and
Greene counties.
After studying at the University
of North Carolina's law school, he
was admitted to the bar in 1885,
though he never practiced. In
stead he continued to publish and
edit newspapers, proving himself
a fierce ally of the Democratic
Party. He purchased The News and Observer in 1894, making it a
pivotal instrument of the white supremacy campaign. President
Woodrow Wilson named him secretary of the Navy in 1913. President
Franklin Roosevelt appointed him ambassador to Mexico in 1933.
Daniels died in Raleigh on Jan. 15,1948.
FURNIFOLD SIMMONS
NEWS & OBSERVER FILE PHOTO
Furnifold Simmons was born on
his father's plantation near Pol-
iocksville in Jones County in 1854.
After graduating from Trinity
College (now Duke University) in
1873, he studied law and began
practicing in New Bern. He served
one term in Congress (1887-89),
then lost the next two elections
for that seat.
After losing statewide elections
in 1894 and 1896, North Carolina's
Democratic Party named him its
chairman. Simmons orchestrated
the campaign of 1898 that would
restore the party to power. Show
ing its gratitude, the legislature
appointed him in 1900 to a seat in
the U.S. Senate that he would hold for 30 years.
COURTESY UNC-CHAPEL HILL
THE STATEWIDE WHITE SUPREMACY CAMPAIGN
C harles B. Aycock, governor of North Carolina from 1901 to 1905, has become the central
symbol of the state’s progressive traditions, first and most illustrious of our “education
governors.” Politicians in North Carolina making high-minded appeals for education and
civility routinely invoke “the spirit of Aycock.” The contradictory truth is that Aycock earned
his prominence by fomenting a bloody white supremacy revolution in North Carolina. This
campaign — with Wilmington as its flash point — essentially overthrew the state gov
ernment by force and by fraud, ending meaningful democracy in the state for generations. How this
happened is a lesson in the politics of racial violence and the ironies of public memory.
SPREADING THE WORD
Flash points of statewide white supremacy campaign in 1898;
Fayetteville: The paramilitary Red |
Shirts make their first appearance |
at an October rally featuring p
South Carolina Sen. Sen Tillman. Is
Raleigh: Josephus Daniels
spearheads anti-black propaganda
campaign through his newspaper.
The News and Observer.
1?
Goldsboro: Flanked by Charles |
Aycock, Alfred Waddell delivers |
speech decrying “Negro f
domination" in October 1898, i
Charlotte: H.E.C, “Red
Suck" Bryant, a star
reporter for the Charlotte
Daily Ohserv'er, travels the
state to report anti-hlack
and anti'Fusion articles.
Hamlet: Gov. Daniel
Russell hides in a railroad
mail car to avoid a gang
of Red Shirts hunting foi
him after he voted in
Wilmington on Nov. 8.
Source; 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission Report
As the 1898 political seascm loraned,
the Populists and Republicans hoped
to make more gains throng Fusimi.
The Democrats, desperate to over
come their unpopularity, decided to
place all their chips on racial antago
nism. Party chairman Furnifold Sm-
mons mapped out the campaign strat
egy with leaders whose names would
be immortalized in statues, on build
ings and street signs; Aycock, Henry
G. O)imor, Robert B. Glenn, Claude
Kitchin, Locke Craig, Camerwi Mor
rison, (^rge Rountree, Francis D.
Winston and Josephus Daniels.
These men knew that the Demo
crats’ only hope was to develop cam
paign issues that cut across party
lines. Southern history and practice
politics had taught them that white
discomfort with black political par-
Laurinburg; Aycock
sounds the theme of
white supremacy in a
speech lust before the
Democratic State
Convention in May.
■ '-.i■■ 'iMtpi 11 '1 •mjr/inyvifmm * m"L*
Wilmington: in a speech
on Oct 24.1898, Waddell
promises to "choke the
current of the Cape Fear
with carcasses" to end
"Negro domination."
The News & O&server
ticipation remained a smoldering
ember that they could fan to full
flame. So they made the “redemp
tion” of North Ciarolina from “Negro
domination” the theme of the 1898
campaign. Though promising to re
store something traditional, they
would, in fact, create a new social or
der rooted in white supremacy and
commercial domination.
A propaganda campaign slander
ing African-Americans would not
come cheap. Simmons made secret
deals with railroads, banks and in
dustrialists. In exchange for dona
tions right away, the Democrats
pledged to slash corporate taxes af
ter their victory.
At the center of their strategy lay
the gifts and assets of Daniels, edi
tor and publisher of The News and
Observer. He spearheaded a propa
ganda effort that made white parti
sans angry enou^ to commit elec
toral fraud and mass murder.
It would not be merely a campaign
of heated rhetoric but also one of vk
dence and intimidatioa Daniels called
Simmons “a genius in putting every
body to work—men wdio could write,
men who could speak, and men who
could ride—the last by no means the
least important” By “ride,” Daniels
employ^ a euphemism for vi^iante
terror. Black North Carolinians had to
be kept away from the polls by any
means nece^ary.
Thou^ it would end in bloodshed,
the campaign began with an ordinary
enou^ meeting of the Democratic ex-
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