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Episodes The Prologue In Conversation In Session

Episode 3, Season 2 / Dec 23, 2021

If You Would Know Us

Notes on the Wilmington Massacre and a live performance by Birds of Chicago

The Prologue

The Prologue

The 1898 Wilmington Massacre was a violent attack on the city's thriving African American community, one of a series of coups that took place after the Civil War. Through interviews with local historians, OA contributor KaToya Ellis Fleming investigates the backlash to Wilmington's Black leadership and the legacy of the Wilmington Massacre.

Photos of Alex Manly and the Daily Record staff courtesy Alex L. Manly Papers (#65), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, East Carolina University.

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Beyond The Prologue

Essays by KaToya Ellis Fleming

KaToya Ellis Fleming was the 2019–20 Oxford American Jeff Baskin Writers Fellow. She holds a BA in English from Spelman College and an MFA in narrative nonfiction writing from the University of Georgia. She currently lives in Wilmington. Read more by Fleming here.

Alex Manly, c. 1895-1905

Alex Manly was a civic leader in Wilmington, North Carolina, part of the city’s multiracial Republican government that was overthrown by white insurgents during the 1898 Wilmington Massacre. Manly also served as editor and publisher of the Daily Record, North Carolina’s first black owned and operated daily newspaper. He was targeted by mobs during the Wilmington Massacre and forced to flee the state after the Daily Record was torched.

Photo courtesy Alex L. Manly Papers (#65), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, East Carolina University.

Gallery

The Daily Record, Aug 26, 1898

An August 1898 issue of the Daily Record, just three months before the publication of the editorial used to incite the Wilmington Massacre. The Daily Record would be burned to the ground during the violent coup against the city's black leadership and institutions. Photos courtesy the Cape Fear Museum

In Session

In Session

A performance by American folk duo Birds of Chicago from the 30A Songwriters Festival.

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