Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy

At 8 AM on the morning of November 10th, having received no response from the “Committee of Colored Citizens,” Waddell went to the armory where a white mob was assembled. Colonel Moore, head of the “Vigilance Committee” and the local KKK, was at his military command post a few blocks away. The mob wanted Captain James, the head of the Wilmington Light Infantry, to lead the march on the Record, but his superior Lieutenant Colonel Walker Taylor told him to stand down.

Waddell led the march to the Record office himself. The mob destroyed the printing press and burned the building down. A Black fire company put out the fire while the mob shot in their direction. Waddell then tried to disperse the mob, but they took off to the Sprunt Cotton Press which employed many Black workers.

George Rountree, Roger Moore, James Sprunt (the cotton press owner), and Gizzard French tried to pacify the mob at the cotton press by telling the Black workers to get back to work. When that failed, they arranged for groups of Black workers to be escorted home by armed members of the Vigilance Committee. The mob took off to the Brooklyn neighborhood after hearing a rumor that armed Black men were gathering there.