"The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898." Colonel Thomas W. Clawson August 24, 1898

This document was written to justify the events in Wilmington NC. Colonel Clawson repeats a newspaper article written on August 18, 1898 by Alfred Manly, editor of the Daily Record. The article is in response to Mrs. Fellow’s speech at the Agricultural Society in Tybee, Georgia in 1898. In the article, Manly makes the statement that “our experience among poor white people in the county teaches us that the women of that race are not any more particular in the matter of clandestine meeting with colored men than are the white men with colored women.” The idea that a black man would openly state that it was acceptable for a white woman to be with a black man was considered proof that order needed to be restored to the city of Wilmington; that the colored men of Wilmington had lost their place in society and needed it restored. This document is notarized stating that Alfred Manly and those associated with the printing of this paper are all Republicans and have held some form of public office. Under this guise of protecting white womanhood white citizens planned on taking the election by force if necessary, leading to the riot on November 10, 1898.