Race War in North Carolina (1899)

What sparked the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, a mass riot and insurrection carried out in Wilmington, North Carolina?In 1899, Henry Litchfield West (1859-1940) Political Editor of The Washington Post published a short 35-page book on the Wilmington Insurrection, titled "e;The Race War in North Carolina."e;The Wilmington insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898, was a mass riot and insurrection carried out in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, on Thursday, November 10, 1898. The white press in Wilmington originally described the event as a race riot. Since the late 20th century and further study, the insurrection has been characterized as a coup d'etat, the violent overthrow of a duly elected government.Multiple causes brought it about. The coup was the result of a group of the state's Southern Democrats conspiring and leading a mob. It has been described as the only incident of its kind in American history, because other incidents of late-Reconstruction Era violence did not result in the direct removal and replacement of elected officials by unelected individuals. The Wilmington coup is considered a turning point in post-Reconstruction North Carolina politics.