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The Wilmington coup d'état of 1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington race riot of 1898, began in Wilmington, North Carolina on November 10, 1898 and continued for several days. It is considered a turning point in post-Reconstruction North Carolina politics. The event is credited as ushering in an era of severe racial segregation and disenfranchisement of African-Americans throughout the Southeastern United States. Laura Edwards wrote in ''Democracy Betrayed'' (2000), "What happened in Wilmington became an affirmation of white supremacy not just in that one city, but in the South and in the nation as a whole."〔(James Loewen, "'Democracy Betrayed: The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and Its Legacy' (review)" ), ''Southern Cultures,'' Volume 6, Number 3, Fall 2000, pp. 90-93 | 10.1353/scu.2000.0058, accessed 30 July 2014〕 Originally described by European-Americans as a race riot, the events are now classified as a ''coup d'etat'', as white Democratic Party insurgents overthrew the legitimately elected local government.〔("Black Pathology Crowdsourced: Why we need historians in debates about today's cultures" ), ''Atlantic Online,'' 4 April 2014〕〔("How The Only Coup D'Etat In U.S. History Unfolded" ), NPR, 17 August 2008〕 A mob of nearly 2,000 men attacked the only black newspaper in the state, and persons and property in black neighborhoods, killing an estimated 15 to more than 60 victims.〔(John DeSantis, "Wilmington, N.C., Revisits a Bloody 1898 Day" ), ''The New York Times'', pp. 1 and 33, 4 June 2006, accessed 23 August 2012〕 Two days after the election of a Fusionist white mayor and biracial city council, two-thirds of which was white, Democratic Party white supremacists seized power and overturned the elected government. Led by Alfred Waddell, who was defeated in 1878 as the congressional incumbent by Daniel L. Russell (elected governor in 1896), more than 2,000 white men participated in an attack on the black newspaper, ''Daily Record,'' burning down the building. They ran officials and community leaders out of the city, and killed many blacks in widespread attacks, especially destroying the Brooklyn neighborhood. They took photographs of each other during the events. The Wilmington Light Infantry (WLI) and federal Naval Reserves, ordered to quell the riot, became involved with the rioters instead, using rapid-fire weapons and killing several black men in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Both black and white residents later appealed for help after the coup to President William McKinley, but his administration did not respond, as Governor Russell had not requested aid. After the riot, more than 2,100 blacks left the city permanently, having to abandon their businesses and properties, turning it from a black-majority to a white-majority city. In the 1990s, a grassroots movement arose in the city to acknowledge and discuss the events more openly, and try to reconcile the different accounts of what had happened. This was similar to efforts in Florida and Oklahoma to recognize the early 20th-century race riots of Rosewood and Tulsa, respectively, in which white mobs had attacked and killed blacks. The city planned events around the insurrection's centennial in 1998, and numerous residents took part in related discussions and education events. In 2000 the state legislature authorized a commission to produce a history of the events and to evaluate the economic impact and costs to black residents, with consideration of reparation for descendants of victims. Its report was completed in 2006. ==Background== In 1860, before the Civil War, Wilmington was majority black and the largest city in the state, with nearly 10,000 people.〔(''North Carolina and the Civil War'' ), North Carolina Museum of History〕 Numerous slaves and free blacks worked at the port, in households as domestic servants, and in a variety of jobs as artisans and skilled workers.〔 After the Battle of Fort Fisher, which the Union won in January 1865, Wilmington was taken by Union troops in February, after they had worked their way through Confederate defenses up the Cape Fear River. Numerous slaves had escaped to Union lines before this, seeking freedom, and some fought with the Union. With its victory in the Battle of Wilmington, the Union completed its blockade of major southern ports. The Confederate General Braxton Bragg had burned tobacco and cotton stores before leaving the city. With the end of the war, freedmen in many states left plantation and rural areas for towns and cities, not only to seek work but to gain safety by creating black communities without white supervision. Tensions grew in Wilmington and other areas because of a shortage of supplies; Confederate currency had no value and the South was impoverished at the end of the long war. Federal constitutional amendments had abolished slavery, and granted citizenship and voting rights to freedmen. Adults and children were pursuing education. Freedmen were eager to vote, tending to support the Republican Party that had achieved their freedom. In North Carolina, state and local races were close, with Republicans winning most of the offices. Their ascendancy to power can be traced to granting the franchise to freedmen, plus the successful formation of a biracial coalition of freedmen, recent black and white migrants from the North, and white Southerners who supported the Union and Reconstruction. Many white Democrats had been embittered since the Confederacy's defeat, and most veterans were armed. Insurgent veterans joined the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which started in Tennessee but soon had chapters across the South. It generated considerable violence at elections to suppress the black vote, and Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1870. After the KKK was suppressed by the federal government through the Force Act of 1870, new paramilitary groups arose in the South. By 1874, chapters of Red Shirts, a paramilitary arm of the Democratic Party, had formed in North Carolina, helping Wade Hampton gain election in 1874 by suppressing the black vote. A Republican governor was elected in 1876, before the end of Reconstruction and withdrawal of federal troops from the South. In the years that followed, Wilmington, then the largest city in the state, had a majority-black population, which included numerous black professionals and a rising middle class. The Republican Party was biracial in membership. Unlike in many other jurisdictions, blacks in Wilmington gained positions as members of the police force and fire department, as well as elected positions. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wilmington insurrection of 1898」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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