According to the document, Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898 had a unique demographic makeup with a significant African American middle class and representation in government. This caused tensions as whites felt threatened. An influential African American newspaper editor named Alex Manly wrote pieces that exacerbated tensions. On election day, white supremacists violently overthrew the legally elected government, targeting successful African American businessmen and officials. The governor and president failed to intervene to stop the violence or restore the government. The coup had long lasting impacts, radically transforming the lives of African Americans and enacting permanent denial of their voting rights.

1. How did the community contend with this legacy? Had you
TASKWilmington’s LieAnswer the following questions within the body of your
essay:According to Zucchino, what about the demographics of Wilmington in 1898 made it
unique? Democrats were the party of white supremacy; the Republicans were the ones that
African Americans joined and supported. So you had this black middle class and meaningful
representation in government. According to Zucchino, how did whites handle this? What
were race relations like in the city? There was a very influential piece by an African
American newspaper editor, Alex Manly, which played a role in all of these events. Using
specific details from Wilmington’s Lie, describe in detail who Alex Manly was and what role
his newspaper played in Wilmington. November 8 was election day in Wilmington and
across the state. Using specific examples from the book, what was the plan of Wilmington’s
white supremacists and what eventually happened in Wilmington? Using specific examples
from the book, discuss in detail the response of the governor of North Carolina, as well as
that of President William McKinley to the events in Wilmington. What prevented both men
from intervening? This wasn’t simply a change of government. It was a radical
transformation of the lives of black citizens. African Americans were successful attorneys
and merchants who had real lives and stakes in the community and lots of black people who
were employed in working-class roles.How were their lives affected by this? One little detail
which underlined the permanence of these changes were that Tom Miller, this wealthy
black citizen of Wilmington, the real estate broker who was banished from the city, years
later asked permission to just come back to attend his mother’s funeral.What happened?
According to Zucchino, this was America’s first and only armed overthrow of a legally
elected government, and that’s because there were local officials who were not on the
ballot; that, even after these horrific events, were technically still in office, legally elected –
some of them African Americans. What happened to them? According to Wilmington’s Lie,
after this violence in 1898, what measures were – did the white leaders enact to make
permanent the denial of voting rights for blacks? In the decades that followed, how were
these violent events characterized by white papers, white newspapers and leaders in the
South? In 1998, as the 100th anniversary of the events in Wilmington was approaching,
there was quite a debate about how these events were to be regarded.How did the
community contend with this legacy? Had you known of the Wilmington massacre before
reading David Zucchino’s book? If so, what was your understanding of the events recounted
in the book? Josephus Daniels, publisher of the Record, and Furnifold Simmons of the state’s
Democratic Party were able to exploit the anger and fears of the white population through

2. an intentional campaign of disinformation. Is today’s public as gullible as it was at the turn
of the 20th century? Or, given the impact of social media, are we perhaps more so? Does
Wilmington’s Lie challenge your view of who we are as a nation? Have we changed over the
past 120+ years? How or how not?