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White Supremacy: Death, Truth and Justice in the 1898 Wilmington Coup
On November 10, 1898 in Wilmington, North Carolina, white business owners, Democratic politicians, and paramilitary white supremacist groups orchestrated the only violent overthrow of a democratically elected government in United States history. This overthrow was the culmination of a Democratic ‘white supremacy’ election campaign. The aftermath saw the stripping of economic, political, and social power from the prosperous black communities and business of Wilmington. Wilmington, prior to the coup, had a black community with economic prosperity and active political engagement compared to much of the post-Reconstruction South. A 2006 report by the Wilmington Race Riot Commission, created by the state legislature, found that this event impacted black rights and power both in the city and across the state and found that many of these issues continue, including economic gaps and voting restrictions. Historical revisionism covered up what happened in Wilmington, leaving the coup out of the historical record and depriving survivors, their decedents, and Wilmington’s black community of justice. The practice of transitional justice can help recover the truth of the events through truth commissions historical preservation of documents and artifacts. Restorative justice methods can also be used to examine how the events can be remembered through memorialization and in educational curriculum and programming. Transitional justice presents a chance to reclaim the truth of the past and potential avenues of justice, restitution, and reconciliation that addresses past wrongs.
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Advocacy, Resilence, and Liberation: A Kent State Story
This past summer I was able to immerse myself in research concerning some very captivating history at Kent State University and the prominent Black student movement. The presence of our Black student and faculty population in the late 60’s and early 70’s are responsible for many groundbreaking efforts to democratize the Kent State campus and curriculum. Black United Students was formed in the spring of 1968, shortly after the assisination of Dr. Martin Luther King. That fall Black United Students led a walkout of more than 250 students demanding a more representative student and administrative body, as well as a Black Studies program and a building on campus to truly call their own. They were successful in these efforts and this led to the implementation of what we now call the Department of Pan-African Studies and Oscar Ritchie Hall. I conducted my research under Dr. Gooden, Chairperson for the Department of Pan-African Studies. Together, ourselves and a group of research assistants decided that there was more than enough information to produce a documentary on the various stories and sub-communities within the Black student body of the late 60s and early 70s. Not only did we look at the way our students advocated for change in the curriculum and representation, but we examined the ways in which the Black students advocated for each other on a personal level. Most of the alumni we interviewed stayed in contact up until this day and have a plethora of stories to share on their time at Kent State. A sense of community belonging, and activism among Black students on this campus was essential to the development of Kent State University.
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