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African American Innovation During Difficult Economic and Discriminatory Times

On November 10, 1898, a disgraceful event in North Carolina occurred: as part of the White Supremacy campaign of the 1890s, Democratic leaders in Wilmington overthrew leading black and white Republicans and Populists to regain control of Wilmington’s government.  What happened in Wilmington, many assert, “suppressed the political, social, educational and economic development and aspirations of African-Americans in this state for over ninety years.”  Although innovative blacks worked in unfair circumstances during the late 1800s and early 1900s, such assumptions reveal a 1960s Revisionist focus on failure instead of an emphasis on black agency and fortitude that reveals how African Americans remarkably achieved success during difficult times.

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