Carolina Politics Online

A bill would mandate North Carolina schools teach about the 1898 Wilmington race riots.

Introduced by Sen. Julia Boseman, a New Hanover Democrat, the bill orders the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to create teaching materials and provide workshops on the subject.

The idea was first proposed by the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission, which issued a report in 2006.

A previous bill proposed by former Rep. Thomas Wright did not pass in part because of an estimated cost of $200,000.

“It might be an unfortunate part of our history, but it’s part of our history, and our students deserve to know about it,” Boseman said.

Wilmington Star

I think knowing a little bit about your home state is important, and the Wilmington Riots were a watershed event in N.C. history. I think it should be taught in schools, and there is no way in flipping flaming hell that it should cost $200,000 to do it.

My caveat, however, is that they teach the WHOLE story.

What do you mean, oh wise and wonderful Celtic?

Read on…

Once upon a time (1898) in a mystical land (Wilmington) most of the blacks were Republicans, and a coalition of blacks and rural farmers were able to put a Republican in the governor’s office and give Republicans a majority in the state house. Now, the Civil War was still a relatively recent experience, and down south Republicans were about has popular as antibiotic resistant STD’s. So having Republicans in charge of a southern state was a big deal.

And Democrats were not pleased.

So in order to make sure that blacks and Republicans “learned their place”, several Democrat party leaders got together and instigated the Wilmington Race Riots. Before the race riots, Wilmington was home to a safe, cultured, and profitable black community. It was even represented by a black congressman. But after the riots, the black community in Wilmington lay in ruins.

The riots had three major consequences that are still felt to this day:
1) Blacks were firmly entrenched as second-class citizens. Their days of voting, holding office, and being able to live in prosperous and successful communities were gone.
2) North Carolina became a one-party state. With blacks intimidated out of the voting booths and roving Democrat mobs ensuring that no Republican would ever lead the state again (and that’s not hyperbole- Gov. Daniel Russell, the Republican governor at the time, was damn near lynched by angry mob of Democrats during the race riots), Republicans had no chance of being a viable second party. There wouldn’t be another Republican governor until 1972, and Republicans wouldn’t run the state house again 1994, and that was only for a short time. Republicans haven’t run the state senate since Reconstruction. Meanwhile, Democrats were responsible for keeping black people down for the next 6o+ years.
3) The careers of several prominent Democrats were launched through their participation in the riots. Among them were future governor Charles Aycock, who called the riots, “not an act of rowdy or lawless men”. Another prominent Democrat was Furnifold Simmons, who would go on the become a U.S. Senator and Democrat party boss for the next 30 years.

So yes, by all means our students should learn about the Wilmington Riots- as long as they learn the WHOLE story. And the whole story is that today’s N.C. Democrat Party owes much it’s luster and power to the cowardly and despicable acts of its forebearers over 100 years ago.

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