WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Community members gathered Tuesday at 1898 Memorial Park on North 3rd Street for an annual wreath-laying ceremony marking 128 years since the 1898 Wilmington massacre.
On Nov. 10, 1898, white supremacists attacked Wilmington’s thriving Black community and overthrew the city’s biracial government.
City leaders and descendants of the 1898 victims attended the event to reflect on what took place and on how to forge a better path forward.
LaShonda Teague, a fourth-generation descendant of 1898 massacre victims, spoke about what those who fled faced.
“They had to flee with nothing and go somewhere and start all over with nothing, not a dollar in their pocket so just imagine one day, like I said earlier, kissing your children good night and the next day your whole world is turned upside down and you die only because you’re a Black man in a neighborhood,” she said.
If you are interested in learning more, an interactive map detailing the timeline of events is available on the Cape Fear Museum’s website, and Wilmington-N-Color Shuttle Tours offers a guided experience of the events.
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