Amazingly, Daniels remained a pillar of the national Democratic Party until his death in 1948. He was Woodrow Wilson's campaign manager in 1912 and was rewarded by being appointed secretary of the navy, where he immediately reinstituted racial segregation throughout the department. Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to be ambassador to Mexico.
As the 1898 election approached, violence against blacks and Republicans reached a fever pitch. Alfred Moore Waddell, a prominent Wilmington Democrat who had served four terms in Congress, gave an incendiary speech the night before the election that reflected the mood. "Go to the polls tomorrow," he said. "If you find the Negro out voting, tell him to leave the polls. And if he refuses, kill, shoot him down in his tracks. We shall win tomorrow if we have to do it with guns."
The culmination of the Democrats' racist campaign was a riot throughout Wilmington on Election Day. Many died, and all the Republican municipal officials, whose terms didn't expire until the next election, were forced to resign at gunpoint. Democrats retook control and quickly moved to cement their power by arresting prominent Republicans and driving others out of the city permanently.
By 1900, the Democratic Party was back in complete control of North Carolina, which it would hold for another 80 years. There were no recriminations for the Wilmington coup, and many instigators in the conspiracy went on to have prominent careers in state politics.
Sadly, a similar story was told throughout the South, where the Democratic Party ruled with an iron hand. And the foundation of its power was racism. Blacks were systematically kept down economically and politically with Jim Crow laws and lynchings. Black men were thrown in jail on the flimsiest of charges, where they were put on chain gangs and leased to white plantation owners for a pittance, in effect reinstituting de facto slavery.
All this was done by Democratic governors and legislatures. Although frowned upon by Northern Democrats, the national party was too dependent on Southern votes to do anything about it. The state of North Carolina deserves great credit for helping to bring this history to light.
Editor's Note: The report of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission can be found at www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/1898-wrrc/report/report.htm.