5 Race Riots In America That You Were Never Taught In School - Page 2

1. The Wilmington Coup (1898) – Wilmington, North Carolina

This wasn’t just a riot. It was a violent overthrow of a legally elected government. In 1898, a multiracial government established political power in Wilmington, North Carolina post Emancipation. 

According to PBS, Black North Carolinians saw a strategic opportunity in the late 19th century to unite with the largely white Populist Party around shared economic and political interests. This unlikely alliance became known as the Fusion movement, and it led to the creation of a Fusion government. Together, Black voters and white Populists pushed for reforms like fair elections, public education funding, and better labor protections. For a brief moment, multiracial democracy was not only imaginable—it was working.

Sadly, white supremacists, unwilling to accept this shift, launched a violent coup. Armed mobs burned down Black-owned businesses, murdered dozens of Black residents (though the true death toll is unknown), and forced elected officials to resign at gunpoint. It remains the only successful coup d’état on American soil.