Long before domestic terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, another violent attack on a democratically elected government occurred in Wilmington, North Carolina. This one succeeded. On November 10, 1898, white supremacists orchestrated a coup d’état in Wilmington. They shot and killed Black people, burned the offices of the Black newspaper, and ousted Black elected and appointed government officials and their allies, all of whom were replaced by white members of the Democratic Party. The leadership of the Black community was banished from Wilmington. This astonishing act of domestic terrorism, which constituted an ethnic cleansing of the Black population in the city, ushered in the Jim Crow era in North Carolina. Even today, North Carolina’s Black population suffers from the ripple effects of the violence and intimidation, racial segregation and discrimination, disenfranchisement, and pervasive economic oppression inflicted on the Black population during this era. This trauma was enabled, perpetrated, and concealed by the local, state, and federal government, all of whom share responsibility for the death and destruction that occurred on November 10, 1898, and its aftermath.Restorative justice for the victims of the Wilmington Coup is long overdue. Although some progress was made when the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission issued its findings and recommendations in 2006, not enough has been done to repair the damage done. Moral, as well as financial, reparations—both individually and collectively—must be paid to achieve reconciliation and social reconstruction of this community. Failure to take these crucial steps leaves open wounds, and, as demonstrated at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the distinct possibility that history will repeat itself. Part I of this article sets forth a brief history of the events that occurred in Wilmington in 1898. Part II describes the context in which the Wilmington Massacre and Coup occurred: a systemic backlash by white Americans who used violence and political fraud to snuff out Black citizens’ economic and social progress after the Civil War. We argue that, in Wilmington, these assaults amounted to an ethnic cleansing of the Black population. We also propose a restorative justice framework for righting the wrongs inflicted in 1898, as a way forward. Part III of the article offers several proposals to continue the pursuit of justice in Wilmington that began with the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission. The work has only just begun
