Bishop Barber closes out Saturday's 1898 symposium in Wilmington (Cash Michaels photo)
TRIBUTE TO LATE BLACK
PUBLISHER, AND 1898
SYMPOSIUM LEAD
WILMINGTON EVENTS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
[WILMINGTON] Last week, the port city of Wilmington commemorated the 125th anniversary of the 1898 race massacre that dramatically crippled its African-American population economically, politically and socially for well over a century.
Among the many events presented last week that showcased the violent and racist episode that many historians call “the only successful coup d’tat in American history,” two stood out in importance to the African-American community.
On Friday, November 10th, the actual 125th anniversary of the race massacre, the Southeast region of the National Black Leadership Caucus (NBLC) paid tribute to the late Black publisher/editor Mary Alice Jervay Thatch of The Wilmington Journal, North Carolina’s oldest African-American newspaper.
Ms. Jervay Thatch, an award-winning journalist, died in December 2021.
With many community supporters of The Journal gathered at Wilmington’s Thalian Hall, the tribute program titled, “The Black Press Rising from the Ashes of 1898” spotlighted Mrs. Jervay Thatch’s 25 years of leading the paper as it advocated for the community’s rights, and also led the campaign to gain pardons of innocence for The Wilmington Ten.
“After the atrocities of the 1898 massacre, we did not have a voice,” Sonya Patrick, regional director of the NBLC told WWAY-TV. “The Black press is our voice. And no one has the right to destroy that, or take that away from us.”
The next day, Saturday, Nov. 11th, Ms. Patrick, along with fellow members of the Wilmington Journal Breakfast Club, a community service group dedicated to seeing the restoration of Wilmington’s African-American community, presented its second 1898 Symposium titled “Bringing the 1898 Assessment Alive!” at Williston Middle School.
Before the New Hanover Board of Education changed it’s status in 1968, Williston used to be a distinguished and much heralded all-Black senior high school during the early to mid-1900s. Alumni of the old school still celebrate its legacy with great pride.
The symposium discussion, centered around the question of how Black Wilmington can heal and move forward from the crippling and racist blow of 1898, featured a dynamic mix of social activists, headed by Bishop William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach; local historian and author Dr. Bertha Todd; author and Duke University historian Prof. Timothy Tyson; Ms. Inez Campbell-Eason, a descendant of an 1898 black family; Rev. Robert Parrish, pastor of Gregory Congregational United Church of Christ; and law Prof. Irving Joyner, who served as vice chairman of the 2006 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission.
For approximately 90 minutes, the symposium panel discussed not only the need for the true history of 1898, which had been hidden for almost a century, to be revealed, but taught in schools.
Dr. Todd talked about the need for community reconciliation so that black Wilmington can rebuild.
Ms Campbell-Eason shared how black wealth was stolen from her Black family and others, and how many had to flee to other states for theirs lives when well-armed white supremacists drove African-Americans from their homes and properties.
Rev. Parrish talked about the vital need in Wilmington’s Black community for restoration to rebuild its economy, bring Black families back to live, and implement the critical repairers needed at both Gregory Church and the Wilmington Journal office on the Seventh Street corridor.
Dr. Tyson related how powerful white supremacists actually took over North Carolina state government first, before taking over the Black-white fusion Wilmington city government by force.
Atty. Joyner warned that the January 6th, 2021 violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol was a modern-day warning that 1898, the time on a national scale, could happen again.
Bishop Barber called for Blacks, whites and other communities of color to come together once again, disregarding race and class, to form a fusion party that can truly influence elections in favor of issues the are important to uplifting the conditions of the poor.
In addition to the symposium panel. NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green delivered a special poem for the occasion commemorating how African-Americans were murdered during the 1898 race massacre.
And Emily Powell, 16, an 11th grader at Cape Fear Academy, was given her First Place Award for winning the WJBC’s Mary Alice Jervay Thatch Memorial 1898 Student Essay Competition.
Thirty minutes before the symposium program began at Williston, the middle school was thrown into darkness for the entire afternoon when a stolen car slammed into a nearby utility pole, cutting electricity to the facility.
The program proceeded on schedule, however, with only emergency lights, but no microphones. Fortunately, the Williston auditorium’s acoustics allowed the audience of 350 to hear what was being said from the stage.
Editor’s note - reporter Cash Michaels, a member of the WJBC, was also the master of ceremonies for the 188 symposium, and produced a video on the life of Black publisher/editor Mary Alice Jervay Thatch for the tribute program at Thalian Hall.
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BARBER CHALLENGES LOW
WEALTH COMMUNITIES TO
ORGANIZE AND VOTE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
[WILMINGTON] Bishop William Barber stood in the pulpit of St. Luke’s A.M.E. Zion Church last Sunday afternoon, and told those who had come out to hear him preach a brutal truth.
“My heart is hurting. My people told me that this program was all set…but there’s hardly anybody here!
That’s right. The legendary leader of the Moral Monday and Forward Together movements. The most prominent president the North Carolina NAACP has ever had. The leader of Repairers of the Breach, and co-convener of the National Poor People’s campaign.
A man of God who has preached to, by his own estimate, approximately 60 million people over the years.
But on this rainy Sunday afternoon, and at this black church, less than a hundred were there to hear his message, and Bishop Barber was dumbfounded.
“If we can’t organize our own stuff,” Barber said flatly. “I can’t be satisfied with this turnout to commemorate the 125th anniversary of 1898, where people died.”
The pastor of the church and his staff were naturally red-faced.
Bishop Barber then asked them openly what did they do to ensure that the entire Wilmington community knew he would preaching there for the 125th commemoration of the 1898 massacre.
Apparently not enough, Barber openly deduced, answering his own question.
“You all ain’t mad with me yet, are you?
But that’s when Bishop Barber, now also a professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale University Divinity School, in New Haven, Conn. turned what would have normally been an embarrassing situation, into a prime opportunity to teach, and inspire.
“If you can’t organize right for a program, and get a thousand folk out…we’re never going to organize right for political involvement,” Barber stated.
Before going further, the nationally recognized civil rights leader made clear his open criticisms of the church turnout were not about him or his ego, but rather a warning that failure to plan, organize and vote when low income communities are facing a dangerous future in this country, is effectively giving up before the battle begins.
“Will we just sit here and die?” Bishop Barber rhetorically asked, referencing the biblical parable of the four lepers. He noted that as in 1898, when white supremacists violently attacked Wilmington’s Black community 125 years ago, they killed, and robbed African-Americans of their homes, properties and businesses. Poor people face the same threat from right-wing forces seeking to take away their rights, he said.
Barber made clear that all of the violence towards African-Americans in 1898 was not spontaneous, but rather a well planned attack to violently take back economic and political power from them, and establish white supremacy as the law of the land.
”The coup was a result of a group of [white supremacists] conspiring and leading a mob to overthrow the legitimately elected bi-racial local fusionist government in Wilmington. They said if we can do it in Wilmington, the city with the most racial balance, the city here you have African-Americans leading with power, political power working with whites, if we can do it there, we can do it across the state….”, Bishop Barber explained. “What they were trying to stop was black folks and white folks working together. They were winning all over the state, and North Carolina remained a beacon of hope in the South [until 1898]”
Bishop Barber revealed that white supramacist leaders in 1898 organized, and had 12 committees to plan their overthrow. They ultimately were able to organize 2 thousand people to execute their coup.
“The supremacists were organized,” he declared.
“Let me tell you all, the folks who are racist, the folks who are anti-labor union, the folks who are anti-health care, the folks who are anti-voting rights, the folks who are anti-Jewish, the folk who are anti Muslim, and the folk who are anti Black, they are smart enough to be together. If they are cynical to be together, we need to be smart enough to come together.”
“Are we going to act on history,” Barber rhetorically asked, “… or let history act on us?”
The former pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro made clear that in order for low wealth communities to take political power, they have to organize. They have to plan, strategize and vote their interests, because there are political powers today who are certainly organized and not afraid of plotting and planning their takeover, just like in 1898.
“All these states in the South, they are not red states,” Barber noted. “They are unorganized states.”
If the poor people in those states dropped their differences, found common ground and issues, and then voted, they could literally decide who leads this country,” Bishop Barber said. And they would do that by organizing.
“It’s not about what the enemy is going to do”, he added. “It’s about what you’re going to do!”
Having used the failure of the moment to teach and preach unity, Bishop Barber then concluded.
“When we all get together, what a day of voting, what a day of rejoicing, what a day of power, what a day of change when we all get together. And if we’re going to honor those folk who have died, at least we can get together. At least we can fight together. At least we can stand together. At least …..we can organize together!
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