The 1898 racist massacre and coup still reverberates through Wilmington, N.C.

Two activists with longtime ties to Wilmington reflect on its past and how it might move forward 125 years after a murderous insurrection led by white supremacists.

“Nov. 10 marks 125 years since the massacre and coup d’etat in Wilmington, North Carolina. The city has never recovered from that unspeakable violence, in which untold numbers of Black residents were murdered or driven away.” “How are we to respond to such a painful history, in Wilmington and in the U.S.? How can we work through the ancestral trauma of racialized violence and injustice rather than unwittingly carrying it into the future?”

North Carolina historical marker dedication ceremony, Nov 2019. (Matt Born/The Star-News via AP)

Read this story by two members of the Wilmington CTTT Local Affiliate Group, Reggie Shuford, Executive director, N.C. Justice Center, and writer/editor Lucy McCauley HERE.

Also read My Ancestors Won’t Have the Final Word, by Lucy McCauley in The Assembly NC. “While I don’t feel responsible for my ancestor’s role in the Wilmington massacre, I do feel compelled to help repair what he helped destroy.”