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Before the coup, Wilmington had been a prospering city, where Black residents thrived economically, especially compared with other places in the South. Not only was Wilmington the largest city in North Carolina, it was also considered a center of Black achievement. Black men owned the majority of barbershops and eateries in the city, and some were elected to public office. Despite their collective gains and successes, however, Black people faced widespread discrimination and harassment in Wilmington and were by no means considered equals by the white population.

The events that led to the Wilmington Massacre, which took place in a single day, didn’t happen overnight. The violent coup was the culmination of a monthslong white supremacy campaign. Vowing to rid the state of “Negro domination,” southern Democrats embraced racist propaganda to try to instill fear in the city’s white residents and create doubt about whether Black people should hold any political power at a time when Black voter registration and participation was particularly high.

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In 1896, just two years before the massacre, North Carolina elected its first Republican governor since the end of Reconstruction: Daniel Lindsay Russell. That same year, George Henry White, a Black Republican, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in North Carolina, beating the Democratic incumbent and becoming the only Black member of Congress at the time. Then, in 1897, Wilmington elected a Republican mayor and a number of Black aldermen, expanding the amount of influence held by Black men and their white allies in the city.

With the 1898 election on the horizon, white Democrats, outraged by their loss of political power, launched a crusade to sway the outcomes. Politicians and businessmen such as Furnifold Simmons, Charles Brantley Aycock, Hugh MacRae, and Raleigh News & Observer editor Josephus Daniels spearheaded a multipronged plan to manipulate the results of the election through coercion, fearmongering, and disinformation. They promoted white supremacist propaganda in newspaper articles and political speeches, and terrorized Black residents and white fusionists through armed intimidation.