Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy

by David Zucchino

After meeting with Daniels in New Bern in the spring of 1898, Simmons began to craft the party’s white supremacy message. The effort soon acquired a formal name proudly embraced by Democrats: the White Supremacy Campaign. Its ultimate goal was to evict blacks from office and intimidate black voters from going to the polls. But first, it was necessary not only to terrify black families but also to convince white men everywhere that merely voting in November was not enough. Whites had to be persuaded that free blacks posed an imminent threat to their privileged way of life. And they were told, every day, in newspapers and at campaign rallies next to cotton farms and tobacco fields, that the only way to eliminate that threat forever was for the good white men of Carolina to bring out their guns.