Revised Ed/A Day of Blood: The 1898 Wilmington Race Riot

A Day of Blood: The 1898 Wilmington Race Riot
Revised edition
By LeRae Sikes Umfleet

The events of November 10, 1898, in Wilmington, NC, were a turning point in history. At that time, Wilmington was a bustling port city with a burgeoning African American middle class and a Fusionist government of Republicans and Populists that included black aldermen, police officers and magistrates. By force, a mob of white supremacists seized the reins of government in the port city and, in so doing, destroyed the local Black-owned newspaper office and terrorized the African American community with violence and murder.

In the months thereafter, political upheaval resulted across the state and legal restrictions were placed on the right of blacks to vote. The era of "Jim Crow," one of legal segregation not to end until the 1960s, had begun.

Originally published in 2009, the revised edition includes a foreword by Dr. Valerie Ann Johnson, Chair of the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission and Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities at Shaw University. In this thoroughly researched, definitive study, LeRae Umfleet examines the actions that precipitated the coup; the details of what happened in Wilmington on November 10, 1898; and the long-term impact of that day in both North Carolina and across the nation.

About The Author:

LeRae Sikes Umfleet is Chief of Collections Management for the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. She holds a B.A. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.A. in history from East Carolina University. From 2003 to 2007, Ms. Umfleet was a research historian in the Research Branch of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. In 2007 she received the American Association for State and Local History's Award of Merit and WOW Award for her work on the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Report.

Published 2020; Paperback, 310 pages