Yesterday the North Carolina Democratic Party released an official acknowledgement of and apology for the actions of party members leading up to and during the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot. The events of November 1898 have been well documented of late with the report of the Wilmington Race Riot Commission and “The Ghosts of 1898,” historian Timothy Tyson’s compelling account, published in The News and Observer and The Charlotte Observer last November.
“The North Carolina Election of 1898,” an online exhibit published a couple of years ago by the North Carolina Collection, remains a good introduction to the campaign that culminated in violence in Wilmington. The political cartoons digitized for the site offer particularly striking representations of the viciously racist tone of the Democrats’ campaign.