All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

The Wilmington massacre of 1898: a shocking episode of racist violence | North Carolina | The Guardian

…On November 10, Red Shirts, militiamen and white mobs surged through Wilmington’s streets and massacred 60 or more Black men. “They gave their lives to vote,” said Hesketh “Nate” Brown, a retired New York City transit manager whose great-great-grandfather, Joshua Halsey, tried to flee the militiamen.

The Red Shirts torched the Black newspaper’s office, posed for pictures in front of its smoking ruins, installed Waddell as mayor, and sent hundreds of Black residents fleeing into the woods. Some ran west toward the river; others, east to the Black cemetery. Athalia Howe was 12 when her family and others took refuge in Pine Forest, a cemetery that dated back to the period before Emancipation. It was said that families sheltered next to graves of their loved ones…

Source: The Wilmington massacre of 1898: a shocking episode of racist violence | North Carolina | The Guardian