Victors indeed write history. From the moment the first black men fell dead at the corner of North Fourth and Harnett Streets on November 10, 1898, Wilmington’s white leadership portrayed the day’s events as a justified, spontaneous response to a black riot. The white supremacy campaign itself was depicted as a legitimate corrective to corrupt black politicians and the “black beast rapist.” More than a century would pass before those narratives were successfully challenged—
