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public service and brought you today by your television provider. >> good evening, welcome to quail ridge books it is my honor to introduce to you jim jenkins who was an editor, editorial writer and columnist on the editorial page of the news and observer for 31 years your he will introduce our special guest. please help me welcome jim jenkins. [applause] >> in 1973 i saw him first, across and loud profane, filthy newsroom in downtown raleigh. he was right at a school. i was still in school.

i looked across and is said to someone, who's that? no, that's david zucchino come he's going to be the new star here. he had long dark hair over his shoulders, thick jet black mustache. it was a long time ago. david is a grad of the unc journalism school and in in the manatt of the journalism hall of fame. in raleigh he became famous very quickly in the newsroom when a new young editor came in and sent out a memo to the reporting staff saying each reportable submit to his editor every morning and itinerary for his plans for the day. david even then impossible to

gain, sat down at the old manual typewriter. it's a legendary story. many who were there remember it. said what i will do today, by david zucchino. 202-748-8001 mountain/pacific tried to sneak in a little eight -- 202-748-8001 mountain/pacific, sneak in the late. 11, start like about where to go to lunch turkey fighting all this down. we went to the diner yesterday but the blue plate special went over four dollars so today we may go to mecca, all written down. young editor goes crazy. goes into the office of claude, they very severe, series editor who'd been at the "new york times" waving the memo, waving the memo, we can have this kind of insubordination. sit down. sit and looks, got a pipe.

well, i got to be honest with you, he's one of the best done reporters i've ever seen. in fact, he may be the best i've ever seen, and i did work for the "new york times." so if we got to fire him, or we got to fire you -- [laughing] better start packing. [laughing] zucch was in raleigh -- how long, zucch? five years in raleigh. then he was on quickly up the ladder, philadelphia, los angeles, all this as a foreign correspondent which he has been contract correspondent for the near times now in kabul. he has been under fire. he has been underwater. it has been quite a career. and you know, the late jimmy

once said of mike royko of the chicago paper when they're doing some of his columns, there were trying to get quotes and everything, he said he's the best, isn't he? that's all he said. that's what they say about david zucchino. [applause] >> thank you, jim, for those stories. with those true? all right. thank everybody for come out tonight it i really appreciate your interest in the book. i'd like to ask, how many people been watching the impeachment hearings? and i think they are still going so do i hear a motion to call this whole thing off? will go to bar and turn on the tv and watch the impeachment. no motion? all right. i just like to start off by asking people how many of you were aware of the wilmington coup or massacre would have you want to call it before you came

across this book? so most of you. i have to admit i hadn't heard about this until about 20 years ago. i went to high school and college in north carolina, never heard about it, never heard about in history class, from in history teacher. when he went to unc many, many years ago i was assigned to morrison door. i have no idea who morrison was. i knew he was a governor. that's all i do about it and then years later when researching this book i find out he's one of the leading speakers on the white supremacy campaign that's the subject of this book in 1898. when i was in school i went to think stadium to watch football games. i didn't know who king wasn't didn't care but years later as in researching this book it turns out he's a character in my book as well.

he was a member of one of the machine gun crew that went through town searching out black men to kill. after i left school, as jim told i went to the news and observer whose founding publisher was josephus daniels, who was revered at the paper. there were trivets to all around the newsroom. nobody ever mentioned that he was almost the lead of the white 70 campaign and led the campaign during 19001898. i died iodide and tele started researching this book. i found out recently that the student store at chapel hill is named josie sith daniels student store. i had no idea. it's one of 30 buildings untold by the daily tar heel on the campus that are named after white supremacists, many of them were active in the what's offensive movement of 1898. and i bring all this up just to

make the point that this book isn't really incan history. it's right now. i mean, it's about right now. the legacy of this book is all over the state, all over chapel hill. some people who managed to read the book, i ask them their impressions and they usually have two questions. first is, how did i not know about this? and the second is, how could this happen in the united states of america? the only thing i can tell you is that this is a forgotten chapter of american history, not just north carolina history but american history that was covered up or mischaracterized for more than a century. i think most of you know the basic story. i'll go through it quickly. in 1890 white supremacist supremacist overthrew the multiracial government in wilmington. they killed up to 60 black man and he wanted dozens more. they burned down a black daily newspaper and the evicted city

leaders at gunpoint. they appointed a mob leaders as mayor, police chief, sheriff in city alderman. and they banished black and white political leaders. they marched them with militiamen at gunpoint to the train station. they put them on the train and said if you ever come back to wilmington we will shoot you on-site. not one of them ever came back. and you can imagine during this time when it must've been like for the black families who live in wilmington. their men were being shot down on the street and gunmen were running through the streets terrorizing people, and hundreds of them fled into the swamps in the cemeteries outside the city trying to hide from the white gunmen. this was in november so you can manage it was cold and the step and be the first day they were there it was raining. there were some reports that babies died of exposure. they were there other terrible conditions and it took them two

nights and three days before they felt safe enough to return. and then the days and weeks following the coup, 2100 black people fled the city and never came back. what's really heartedly about all this is that no one was ever punished. no one was prosecuted much less convicted for the murders or for a violent coup. it's also hard to believe that they announced that all ahead of time. they said they would overthrow, quote, negro rule by the ballot or the bullet, or both. they said they were going to do it and they did it as the whole country watched it because they had announced it will before, and this would've been in the spring and summer and fall of 1898, all the major newspapers of the date set or white reporters tend to cover it. the "new york times" was there, the "washington post," "chicago tribune," philadelphia inquirer, baltimore sun, the washington evening star, papers and

charlotte and atlanta and, of course, the news and observer. they were all there. when these white reporters from out of town would arrive at the train station the leaders leade whites of rinsing movement would meet them there and handouts or cars, arrange their lodging. to use modern term they would embed them with the white gunmen who were going around patrolling the city. this was before the two and these reports would go out with them, never any good black person as far as i could tell that they would go out and they would swallow the stories that his government and white supremacists were telling them that there's going to be a black pride, the blacks are stockpiling weapons, the plaques are incapable of governing, , tt they didn't have the right to vote. this was reflected if you can believe in these northern newspapers reflected in the stories that they sent back. so the nation got this whole story that was basically the talking points of the white supremacists to the white press. for a century or more this was

called a a quote race riot. it wasn't. it was a racial massacre. it was a planned murder spree. now in our nation's history in the 19th and early 20th centuries there've been many, many so-called race riots, and almost all of these were spontaneous outbursts of white rage. in many cases it involved real or supposed did contact between a black man and a white woman. but wilmington was unique am completely different. it was premeditated. it was a carefully orchestrated racial revolution planned well in advance. in fact, it was by far the most successful and permanent violent overthrow of an elected government in u.s. history. there has never been anything like it. now why was wilmington such a threat to whites? i think because it was a bold experiment.

wilmington was really an outlier in the late 19th century. it was a rarity in the south. first of all it was a majority black city. it was 56% black. very, very, very few exceeded and staff had a black majority but more important it have to multiracial government. blacks were in positions of authority. ten of the 26 police officers in the city were black. three of the ten city alderman for blackberry or black magistrates, black lawyers, virgins, doctors and lawyers and there was a daily black newspaper. in 1898 a baptist publication called wilmington the freest town for a negro in the country. of course this was intolerable to white supremacist and they were not going to let it stand. now they had a goal. their first goal was to overthrow the government in wilmington. but that was just their first goal. a bigger goal and their major goal was to deny black people right to vote and the right to

hold public office forever. and by the standards it was an incredibly successful coup. in 1896 there were 126,000 registered black voters in north carolina, when hundred 26,000 in 1906, ten years later, 6100 and it went downhill from there. in fact, black citizens of north carolina did not vote in significant numbers for 70 more years until after the voting rights act of 1965. the coup also turn the black majority city into white supremacist stronghold almost overnight. in 1898 as eight as a said before wilmington was 56% black hair anybody have a guess as to what that might be today? take a guess. somebody knows. 18%. in 1898 america had one black

congressman in the entire country, there was one black congressman. his name was george a new white and he was in north carolina and he represented a district in southeastern part of the state that was adjacent to wilmington. he was harassed, he and his family were harassed and basically run out of office by white supremacists. he said in 1900 he was not going to run for reelection. he was leaving the state and his parting words were i cannot live a north carolina and be treated as a man. and after george henry white left office in 1900, no black citizen from north carolina serve in congress into 1992, almost a century later. now after those three black alderman aldermen were evicted at gunpoint in 1898, no black citizen served on the wilmington city council until 1972. it wasn't that long ago. the coup also installed white supremacy and jim crow as a figure state policy for nearly

50 years. it inspired white supremacists across the south and let me give you one example. in georgia in 1906 there was a statewide election campaign and the white supremacists were trying to figure out a way to deny blacks the votes and steal the election. what do you think they did? they consulted with the leaders of the wilmington to find out how to do it. now, the white supremacist governor who got elected was hope smith and here's a direct quote. oh, we can help of the blacks the way to handle them in wilmington with the words were black with their hanging carcasses, close quote. not all whites in bulletin wiln were white supremacist. in fact, white republican officials -- and large part because the black vote was what helped put republicans and populist in office under a government that was called fusion at the time. some whites helped the black neighbors escape the white gunmen on the day of the coup.

that made them targets. during the summer of 1898 white republicans who were prominent and who are seen as working to closely with black officials received some postcards in the mail and they were called quote remember the six they had stolen crossbones and a pistol on them and it was a death threat. on the card it said, these six men, was the six leading white republicans of the town, they called them degenerate sons of the white race, and they said that they was coming when they would pay for putting blacks in office and it would be banished from the town. as it turned out they were. the mayor, the white mayor, the white police chief, white federal commissioner and several white lawyers were marched at gunpoint to the train station,, put on the trinkets that don't come back, we will kill you. and not one of them ever came back. the main weapon or one of the main weapons for the white

supremacy campaign was a fake news campaign led by none other than josephus daniels who planted phony stories in the news observer about blacks who would fight whites to attack them. and for the nearly 25% of white voters who were illiterate, daniels hired a cartoonist to draw race baiting cartoons. i'd like to read a brief passage in the book about the propaganda campaign. .. david: it was a campaign of the era. the most sensational stories but they another democrat takes claiming as a native of the south, daniel understood implicitly the insecurities of white southern males. already emasculated by union troops have occupied the tables,

they were further shamed the blackman were elevated into more equality. a black man who would hold public office was a man who might by their logic, become a rival for the affections among women. but then he said the tribulations of the front page. all of those was required was be incidental contact between white women and black men. with each provocative article, daniel pitted whites against blacks. they were becoming, when white man will take the law into their own hands and by organized force, make the negroes behave themselves. a race war was inevitable. quote, a class is surely becoming between the classes and in such clashes, the white race will win. no white supremacists have their

own fake news in the media campaigns but they also have their own volition. militia, they were called ridges never basically, the clan many of the men in the ranchers were friends or relatives of confederate veterans are clan members. and they're basically the private militia of the white supremacist. the richards job was to write out through the paid burst into homes and drag out blackman and beat them and rip them and tell them that they would be killed if they register to vote on election day. and on election day, which was november 1998, the intersected any blackman that was trying to get to the polling station and intimidated them and become and by doing so, they crushed the black turnout the day. now in addition to the ranchers, they were to state relations. the first was the wellington in

country and the other one was the reserves and this was basically the national guard of the day. they were supposed to report and governor in raleigh but in fact, they were commanded by white supremacist and reported to the coop. the motion then served that summer in the spanish-american war if you remember, if they know that summer. but the white leaders make sure that they were back in wilmington from the war for the time of this meeting. and then during the coop and the right, on the day of the coop, they were still in federal service. they would not beat mustered out for another week or two. so that meant that federal soldiers murdered citizens on the pretext of putting down the block right. now blacks also served in the spanish american war pretty

white leaders make sure that they were far from wilmington and training camp in georgia hundreds of miles away so that left the black community defenseless. you had all these young men trained soldiers but they were miles away. none of work defenders of the black community and one was named alex and he was the back black publisher of the daily record and as a journalist, was really drawn to him i thought it was a fascinating character. he was a righteous man just an amazing character. he challenged whites and demanded civil rights for black screwed he instantly demanded the country live up to its promises to his black citizens. in august of 1998, he wrote an editorial about race and and they had to flee the city than. he wrote the many black men were lynched and for supposedly raping the white women in fact,

they were lovers. nasa pointed out that white man raped black women. this editorial exhuming was in response to a speech by a white woman in georgia is that the only solution to rape was the lunch rope. quote a thousand times a week if necessary. i would like to renew briefly from the editorial, it's fairly long. i will read a short selection from it. every negro lynched his big burly black brute and when in fact, many of those who have been dealt with, fight white men from their fathers and were not only black and burly, for sufficiently attractive for white girls of refinement, will fall in love with them. and that virtual be more than an excuse to intimidate and torture the helpless people. statement that is no worse than

blackman to be intimate with a white woman than for a white man to be intimate with a colored woman. you set yourself down with a lot of hypocrites and that you cry aloud for the virtue of your women while you seek to destroy the morality of hours. you can imagine what courage it took for a black man under these conditions in 191898 to write something like that. people often ask me how i researched this book. i'm a journalist and used to interviewing people about events that they have experienced that obviously in this case are no witnesses left from 1898, so everything is documents i have piles and piles of paper in my office from all the documents i collected. i spent a lot of time in the library, most significantly at local libraries. southern historical collection

and they are an amazing pieces of history. i recommend that you go. but there was a problem. the whites were proud of their culture. and they boasted about it. in memoirs and diaries and letters and newspaper columns. there is a really rich and detailed white record. but blacks, left behind far fewer documents as you can imagine, were running for their lives. the copies were destroyed although some people will find copies now. so what would i was able to do thankfully, work like newspapers or the country who obviously could not send black reporters to wilmington because of these events because the very least, they would've been beaten and run out of town and probably killed but after the coop, after the coo when all these black families spread around the

country especially the eastern seaboard, the black newspapers would interview them and is very rich and detailed stories very fresh stories about what had happened so i was a resource for them. in addition there were black ministers and lawyers the left very interesting memoirs and letters the incredible detail. one of the great resources i had who wrote these just beautiful series of letters to his son in the 1950s that are just great to read. i quote some of them in my book. so with all of this i was able to balance the white narrative with the black experience. and when i tried to do also was to put myself in wilmington as a journalist in 1898, and i also tried to use the tools of a novelist. characters and scenes and dialogue to create a narrative that was built entirely from documents. this is not a historical fiction book. this is a nonfiction book and

everything in this book comes from documents. as a work of journalism and it is not fake news to use a popular term of the day. now before closing, i want to read two short passages from the book that show the scope of this tragedy. first is an election speech given to the red shirts by col., and is a former congressman and a newspaper editor, and confederate colonel who led the mob and install himself as mayor. and again, this is the night before the election, when you give a speech to huge crowd of red shirts. the christ is upon us pretty must do your duty the crisis is upon us. should be rid of negro domination once and forever. you have the courage, you are the sons of noble ancestry in

your anglo-saxon. you are armed and prepared will do your duty. go to the polls tomorrow and he appointed nigro out voting, tell him to leave the polls. and if he refuses, shoot him down in his tracks and kill him. now to show how they responded, i would like to read another passage. the savanna black man named carter and he is a very fascinating character. in encourage blacks to encourage them to vote. but on the day of the rights, three white leaders of the coo persuaded to go with them in a black neighborhood to plead with black residents not to resist them. they had made a great public show but earlier in the day, he concluded that further

resistance would only get him killed. in going from house to house in brooklyn and accompanied by three white men pleading with black residents not to oppose the white government and at one point a group of enraged blackman seized 33 white men and held them hostage. it might be expected of him himself but he surprised everyone by playing with them. and after a series of negotiations, the three whites were set free. he escorted them to a nearby gathering of white gunmen expecting around the thanks and instead, several white men in the crowd attempted a lynching and they were intercepted by two of the three hostages who plunged into the mob in full and free. and it's very intercession on behalf of the white hostages did not spare him from the campaign. just a dark, the infantry detachment detachment arrested him and escorted him to the city jail. a short time later, the infantry

soldiers took him from jail and marched him at gunpoint to the train to go where he was placed aboard the departing train. he was terrified. just before the train departed, to ominous people made the situation even more dire. at first he was mourned by the soldiers they would be killed on site if you ever return to wilmington and second the registers, or the train just before it rolled out of the depot. in the infantry detachment, that part in leading living him along with rogers. a few hours later his body riddled with bullets was discovered in the woods near the park on while imitating's northern outskirts. he jumped from the moving train and was shot by the renters. and is more likely that he was executed on board and his body was thrown from the speeding train. finally you think this major event in north carolina history and in american history would be mentioned in the north carolina public history books in schools. but in fact it was barely mentioned.

it was, and if it wasn't was portrayed as a heroic white response to a black race riot and a good government effort to replace corrup corruption. here's a public textbook from 1933, there were many negro officeholders some more poorly fitted for their test read this naturally aroused from both races. in the textbook from 1940. the massive negros became more citizens indicate the vote, they love them to be very much in the worst crimes are not punished in the white people of the south were no longer safe. here's from the 1949 textbook. the number blacks were jailed starting right in the white administration took over wilmington. and finally, this is from 1940 textbook about the kkk and the red shirts. remember this is a public school

textbook the children are reading. to put an end to this terrible condition, why people join together in a sort of club which they named the clue clocks plan. [laughter]. the member stresses ghosts, sorry, they scared lawless men into acting decently. on moon lit nights, these men could be seen riding horseback to bring back water to the people in such sites frighten the negroes in the living better lives. and the names of these men negro or white who had done wrong were listed. the next movement the clan would visit these men and punished them according to the wrongs they had done and after this is men were noticeable and crime became less and less. and again public school textbook in 1940. so you can see how the white mythology kept the false narrative alive for so long. in this book to correct the historical record.

i truly believe we have to confront the ugliest chapters of our history to understand the roots of racism and hate. and to learn from it. and today the politicians are using social media to be a scapegoat to demonize people of color especially white nationalism on the rise. in fact some of the white nationalist sake jews will not replace them in charlottesville which probably felt right at home in well and make ten and white voters today are being told by some extremist that america is white country. and people of color portrayed as outsiders and threats to the traditional american want lofgren and few politicians are using some of the same tactics as the white supremacist in 1988 only one example. alex in addition to the many death threats he received, was told to go back to africa. just the summer, three congressmen were told to quote, go back to their home countries. for example. 1998, whites were told the blacks were raping the women instilling the jobs.

and today, white voters are told that mexican races are root coming across the border to sealer jobs. so if we don't learn, they can incite the sort of hate and violence that was some distractive hundred and 22 years ago. so if there's one thing that i hope they do take from this book, this is it. so thank you very much printed you have been very patient. [applause]. i think we will open it to questions now. guest. two quick questions. first is, i had heard on npr that there was some difficulty and even obtaining some of the information that you researched and in some of the libraries have kept this off of the shelves. this question number one and

number two, was there any realization from the federal government politicians and thistles going on and did they do anything. david: the first question, i did not have any trouble getting documents. there's plenty of them. they're very well catalogued. the public library, in wilmington, the museum library and national archives. there was no trouble. there was more documents than i can handle pretty your second russian was the federal government. right in the book about how the mckinley administration was warned repeatedly before hand, during the summer and fall of 1998 george henry white the congressman to mention the personally in the white house with mckinley and warned him about what is going to happen. in a group of black clergyman also met with mckinley and warned him about the same thing as did the white republican congressman from north carolina.

the senator, sorry. it all warned him after the right in the coup and the coo church and we whites went back and asked president mckinley for help. for intercession. to send troops. other black ministers did the same. and as far as i can tell in the records, mckinley did not make one single public statement about the situation in wilmington. you have to remember that this was in the aftermath of the spanish-american war and the peace negotiations with the spanish going very poorly. his administration have been accused of not taking care of the troops and importing record dying and yell if in the reported bed. as a huge controversy and that was surprising mckinley reacted that way because he was an abolitionist. infinite union officer and in fact, he campaign for the black

vote. and he supported the black suffrage but he was also trying to bring the nation together during his campaign he met with confederate veterans and give them each a knife that was ingrained forever, trying to heal the wound. and remember, in 1898, after the civil war, and white southerners and northerners cited together in the war. something in his mind, he did not want to risk antagonizing southerner whites. he had to run for reelection. before all of these reasons, he did not intercede. but in answer to your question, there was no intercession by the federal government. guest. i would like to know about the reaction of governor daniel russell and the coo and his reaction from barnett.

david: governor russell was a republican and in fact, he was put in office with the help of black vote. he was from wilmington, he was from a slaveowning family, he was part of the white gentry in wilmington. but it was under threat by the white supremacist. they completely intimidated him. they threatened him with assassination and he carried a gun with him he was so afraid. they threatened him with impeachment. and he tried to go to wilmington on the day of the election and he managed to vote but he barely made it home. it was almost illinois because he had to go through redshirt towns on the way to get back to raleigh on the train. they had to hide him in the baggage car. and at every stop, the redshirts would boarded the train and try to lynch him and say lynch the fat son of a bench and he made

it to raleigh only to find that the governor's mansion had been surrounded by a mob and he and his wife had to stay with that was his reaction and the federal troops they come down, and restore order or do anything about the riots, governor russell, to answer your question he was not about to because he was terrified. next. yes ma'am. guest. i wondering if the redshirts had been so successful in suppressing things that were necessary for the coo. david: because the municipal offices, one part of the election, there was a municipal election scheduled for next march and they did not want to wait that long and the new ones they stole the election and more empowered, they would be in a position to do whatever they wanted because obviously nobody in the city and nobody in raleigh was going to stop the because they had taken over the city or state governments of the planned the

coo for two days after the election and they forcibly removed the officeholders rather than waiting for the next election. let me go over here if anybody has any questions. nope. yes sir. guest. i appreciate the fact you are sounding the alarm and ringing the bell in essence being a tocsin for awareness of this issue. obviously, our local newspaper has on its hope to be the tocsin for misdeeds. is there any role for recreations or anything of that nature from that descendents for owners of the newspapers that cause destroy it. david: i was giving a talk and

reparations came up and as you can imagine in a 1998, with a celebrated or marked the hundred year anniversary, there was quite a debate in the city over reparation in that domain is still going on. i just wonder how you could possibly compensate all of these families that have their lives ripped apart. and they had of the family murdered and run out of town. i think it is an important issue and need to be discussed and i do not have the answers to but again, in wilmington, it is a big issue and you mentioned just even mcdaniels, ironic quote the runs on the editorial page every single day. and if you read the words, you might burst out last laughing. rob. guest. as you mentioned in the epilogue, silent sam has come down from the unc campus, that's

a complicated story in itself but perhaps time to talk about the statute in the square. [laughter]. david: i am not getting into that one and it is not for me to decide. i will say, i did anticipate a question about silent sam. many of you might know this but the speaker when the statute was put them in 1913, the speaker was julian shakespeare car, carrboro. everybody has heard of him. tobacco company, he was a very vocal supporter of the white supremacy campaign. championed the white supremacy and as i say, 1913, he delivered a speech inaugurating silent sam. maybe do a couple of quotes for trade as a tribute to the students who left the university to serve the warrant was because a lot of evil or students died in the war. to be made it clear that it was also tribute to white supremacy.

and he said the students had fought to save the very lives in the anglo-saxon race in the south. and to preserve the strain of the anglo-saxon. in his speech he also bragged about blogging a black woman when he returned to campus sensory in the world 1865, i verse left a negro wedge until her scores went to shreds. she had publicly insulted a southern lady. he called it a duty. this one was to make the point and to make this ancient history which was very much like today. as a building on campus named after him. still stands. guest. wilmington happened, you mentioned georgia and then we have tulsa and rosewood. can you comment about the

interrelationship of wilmington happenings and setting the standard for subsequent white supremacist massacres. david: i don't know, i can only assume this riots would've happened regardless of wilmington the so-called riots. but as i said that before, wilmington was absolutely unique in that it was not a spontaneous outburst. rage on behalf of whites. it was planned. it was premeditated that over a period of months and that is the distinction but to say what effect it had because a lot of these riots, they obviously had whether it had an effect or somehow contributed to the ones. i don't know. yes ma'am did. guest. hi david, so i could or wonder if you could talk more about the role of the north carolina democratic party and the militia

of course the democratic party is different today than it was back in 1898. if you talk a little bit more about that. and against any subsequence things to overturn it or not overturn the documentation that was put up amongst the white militia. david: i think most of you know that the democratic party was the party of white supremacy. and opposed to lincoln and the black suffrage. daniel was on the executive committee of the party and in fact in my mind, he was a politician who happened to him the biggest and most powerful newspaper in the state. and he met regularly in his office with the democratic executive committee. plan strategy to deprive blacks of the boat and this phony news

campaign and he did it as a member of the democratic party working with manning fred simmons who was the chairman of the democratic party. and after the coo, whites had to figure out that the democratic party they had figure out by legislation keep blacks from posing. there were literacy tests back then and those were used to keep blacks voting. but they also affected the white voters because as i said before i'm a nearly one quarter of the whites were illiterate so they had to look out for them to because a lot of whites for something had because of daniels, they had to go to louisiana which the year before they had a so-called grandfather clause which was a brilliant piece of legislation that's law in louisiana said, any person his father or grandfather had wrote before 1867 would be

exempt from a full tax and literacy texts. 11860 it was the of the blacks got to vote. so obviously that law exempted almost all black men from voting. so mcdaniels thought this was wonderful in the democratic party's center down there to do with the portrayed as a journalistic investigation on this. but in fact, he didn't want to pay for it. he got the democratic party to pay for it. anyone of these amazing stories about how wonderful grandfather clause was pretty and how it had completely snuffed out the black vote rated and said we really gotta try this in north carolina and in 1900, they've passed an amendment. it was passed in the law and that was used up until 1915 when several other and by the way that inspired other seven state to do the same thing.

black voting had been snuffed out in north carolina and across the south until an at least until 1965. front row. it. guest. on the flipside, did you find wilmington, the people looked at some of the heroic characters like manley and even galloway. is there. of being honored or remembered for the role that they played and trying to create this experiment in wilmington. david: yes alex manley, has a marker on third street in wilmington but recalls that happened in 1898 as a race riot. there's a real movement in wilmington now to have abraham galloway, at some sort of recognition, statute or something. if you have not read the book, he was an amazing character in the states, it was from the south side of wilmington. he escaped ownership.

instead away on a ship and got to philadelphia and came back and was a spy during the war. he was i believe the first or one of the very first black senators in north carolina after 1868 after a new constitution was written. it is an incredible man. and there is a moment have some sort of tribute or monument to him. guest. speaking of reparations, is there any documentation of african-americans or property that was confiscated in the current value of its. david: that has been an issue for many years among the black community there was a conviction that whites confiscated their property after the flood and took it over. there was a researcher named, i

think suzanne who did a study of all of the property records at the time and surprisingly and this is an the 2006 state commission report. she found that there was very few examples of this. in the conclusion that i came up with was the white supremacist wanted to deprive blacks of their civil rights. much of the property. anything according to this analysis what is happened is even one black families left, they would leave the property and have it taken over him are either right black friends or black relatives. so according to the study, most of the properties stated in the black kandiss. anybody else. way in the back. guest. i cannot hear any questions being asked on the side.

secondly. [inaudible]. 1901 - 1931. [inaudible]. the mike start working. david: in the lemur of the whites from sea campaign he catapulted the same along with a lot of other people in 1998 as you mentioned, he served 30 years as a u.s. senator and it's rob christiansen, right here in the back row, read a terrific book to include in politics in north carolina. i recommend it highly. you will see this that mcdaniels wrote and became secretary of the navy. under woodrow wilson. they spent eight years as young man in wilmington who is also

ambassador to mexico and became well-known man. nationally known figure. many others, there were three speakers during the white supremacy date campaign that became governor. and catapulted the same as a result of their roles in the campaign. guest. i have a couple of comments in question. you mentioned earlier something about brooklyn. i grew up in brooklyn, new york. and first of all the stories are absolutely outrageous. is it possible, the sounds almost like a blueprint for the holocaust almost. there a lot of similarities. i'm sure it was not though. my question is this. is it possible that mckinley did not get involved in the actions in wilmington because of the

states rights and because it felt there were good people on both sides. [laughter]. david: he may have thought that. i know we never send it to my knowledge but i think that is a good point. and it's entirely possible but i really do think that he did not want to antagonize white voters. none lane north carolina across south. he was a politician and he was running for reelection i think that is a lot to do with it. guest. i worked with young people who did a pilgrimage and i was wondering if members of the community in wilmington, the black community, he said in the past year to descendents of the redcoats came to apologize what their ancestors had done but i want to get in touch with the marks because there's a living history there. my question for you is in

research, have you seen evidence about the impact of 1898, played on in the 1970s. i got asked about the wilmington and i'm not an expert on it. i remember it and i know the outlines of the story and i'm sure most people are familiar with it. i will go into the whole story but, you can only assume that some of the hate and the racism from 1898 blood over into what whites did in 1971 by falsely losing ten people were later exonerated as of the plan marching in 1971 and the whites people organization. i don't know the details. see the line going right into

1971. guest: when the ten young people. none of them were black and one of them was a white woman. they wanted to have places to meet and discuss a no church would open up and when i asked you about that you sent were afraid to because of what had happened in 1998. david: and you mentioned black defendants. and i'm i believe that is true. i tried really hard although the city try to get people to talk to me and very few blood. i didn't talk to one very interesting person but now, all of these people are coming forward now. i wish i had that for the book. people just did not want to talk about it read it this black newspapers that replace the records, i went several there several times are and phone calls and with her person and they completely ignore me and did want to talk to me. and they just thought it was the

white person coming to tell the story. i don't think they wanted that. yes ma'am with accurate. guest: our students have been documented documenting just the lynchings. last two weeks we keep going back to dc. the secretary of navy, and the thomas, was leaders of the klan and then also the courts of raleigh and one up in the want to know that george and the clan was waiting for him. and the woman of being accused being right, that was not him. that night he was murdered. he was lynched with a 300 person mob in a town of about a hundred and 20. when is the peak of this campaign. one would think that this was the peak but what you think now that you've done this work in reno that of the pieces come up

later. when does white supremacy campaign decline timeline. davidguest: why people are finally getting involved. and i thought well here we are. but when is the decline. david: 's are the peak in 1998 but as you know, the clan went underground after the reconstruction and came back into big way and i would think e 1920s huddling wilmington around the state and on the south. and today, obviously there's nothing over racism and the violence that we had in 1898. they have a state legislature here the just passed or recently come a few years ago, a voter id law. the federal courts ruled that specifically decide to depress

black turnout and one judge said it targeted african americans with surgical precision. obviously this is not the same level was still an attempt to keep black citizens from voting. one more question. guest: this is more a personal level. when i moved to raleigh about 40 years ago, i joined the jaycees and mcdaniels had been a member previously. everything i always hard when i moved from their witches a military town to raleigh was how liberal the raleigh observer was. having hear you talk about the past and the things that were done in the past, hoping the daniels family seen sunlight with their generation offspring,

and you happen to run into any of the daniels as of and the youngest one, and if you have, hopefully they have read your book and they just want to know on a personal basis, is any difference in the writing in the newspapers today is a journalist for have you in any of you than into any of the family. it. david: i worked there in the 70s and today, it was very progressive and liberal paper in his sinless on an editorial page. when i was there, that was a terrific paper. it was a force. and particularly covering government, state governments, covering and exposing fraud by republicans and democrats. it remained a democratic paper but today's democrats and i think the other editorial page over the years has pretty much traditional mainstream liberal democratic opinions and values.

guest: what you think the changed. [inaudible]. what you think stop that changed. david: he died in the 40s and his family to get over there was a period when they were still conservative in the 50s but buti think was the democratic party changed when the segregation is to the states rights of the democratic party for the republican party and the democratic party became the voice of progressiveness and the liberals, and at the same time, african-american voters amended the republicans and came over to the democratic party. and i think the observer had a choice to make our weather to stay with the democrats and go with the republicans in the state of the democrats and everybody is saying from the time i was there until this

morning, the paper is i think most people would agree that the editorial is mainstream liberal progressive. and you asked about the daniels, i work for frank daniels junior who is the grandson and he is very gracious free to met him in his office and he took all of the time i needed and i talked to him. you can read about it in the book. he is mentioned in the epilogue. thank you. thank you all so very very much. [applause]. david: such good questions. >> weeknights this month, we are featuring book tv programs showcasing what is available every weekend here on "c-span2". tonight, our focus is the founding fathers, first former george w. bush president speechwriter jonathan horn in his book washington and about george washington's final years.

then author like cisco and you never forget your first rated chronicling the life of the first president. in later historian edward larson on franklin in washington about the relationship about benjamin bricklin and george washington predict what will tv this week and every, here on "c-span2". [background sounds]. >> good evening and how is everyone doing. i am great too. i work with the public programs library. thank you so much for coming out author talkthis featuring dennis darren in conversation with diane and they are here to discuss his new book onwhat is your plan. in luke is going to be available for purchase outside after the program and dennis will besi signing books and all proceeds from your purchase will go to