Trump has tried to ignore systemic injustice & pretend that protest is anti-American. His visit to Wilmington today is a reminder how dangerous this appeal to “our heritage” can be. A quick thread... https://twitter.com/stengel/status/1301124375584952320

Long before the USS Wilmington cane to rest in the Cape Fear river, white supremacists led a coup in 1898, promising that the river would run w/ blood until “white rule” was restored. A little background...

After the Civil War, Black folks in NC had political power for the first time. They wisely linked up w/ white populists who knew the old plantation owners & new railroad barons didn’t serve them. They formed the Fusion Party & worked together to expand democracy for everyone.

What was the response of the elites? They waged a campaign of fear & division. Ads like this ran to scare people. They appeal to racial fear & told white folks, “We’ve got to take our country back.”

You might call it the original MAGA campaign. And what did it lead to? You guessed it: vigilante violence. White mobs formed to intimidate Black voters.

When the Fusionist still won control of local government in Wilmington, the white militias led a coup in 1898, killing scores of innocent Black people, burning down Black owned businesses & running the democratically elected government out of town.

When the militia leader took over as mayor, he declared “no further turbulence or disorderly conduct will be tolerated.” Once white rule was established, “law & order” was the watchword in Wilmington. In the early 70s, civil rights activists there were criminalized & imprisoned.

Folks who still fly the Confederate flag in NC often say it’s about “heritage, not hate.” I hope reporters covering Trump here today will note the heritage he has appealed to & its disastrous consequences for democracy.

My friend Tim Tyson at @DukeU wrote this history up for the @newsobserver, which sent a copy to every public school. It’s publicly available here: http://media2.newsobserver.com/content/media/2010/5/3/ghostsof1898.pdf

The @NewYorker also covered this history earlier this year: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/27/what-a-white-supremacist-coup-looks-like