BISHOP BARBER HEADS UP
POWERFUL 1898 WILMINGTON
MASSACRE SYMPOSIUM PANEL
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Editor’s note: our reporter, Cash Michaels, will be the moderator for this Saturday’s 125th Anniversary Commemoration of the 1898 Wilmington Race Massacre at Williston Middle School in Wilmington.
The event is from 1 to 4 p.m., free and open to the public.
This Saturday, Nov. 11th, is the culmination of many, many months of hard work and sacrifice by members of the Wilmington Journal Breakfast Club, a group of committed citizens from across the state and in Wilmington, who have come together to affect positive change in Wilmington’s African -American community.
The WJBC’s second symposium on the 1898 Wilmington Massacre this Saturday will feature a powerful panel, headed up by renowned national civil rights activist Bishop William J. Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach, and co-convener of the national Poor People’s campaign; local historian and author Dr. Bertha Todd; Duke University History Prof. Dr. Timothy Tyson; NCCU Law Professor Irving Joyner: Rev. Robert Parrish, pastor of Gregory Congregational Church in Wilmington; and Ms. Inez Campbell-Eason, whose family are descendants of the 1898 tragedy.
The panel will discuss how, after 125 years this week, Wilmington’s Black community can begin the process to reclaim, rebuild and repair the economic, cultural and human rights status it once had.
The next day, Sunday, Nov. 12th at 2 p.m., Bishop Barber will preach a special sermon of racial unity at St. Luke’s A.M.E. Zion Church, 709 Church Street in Wilmington.
Regarding the WJBC, it is no accident that this community service group associates with, but is not officially or legally a part of the Wilmington Journal, North Carolina’s oldest African - American newspaper. The Journal, under the leadership of founder R.S. Jervay, his son, publisher-editor Thomas C. Jervay, Sr., and his daughter, publisher-editor Mary Alice Jervay Thatch, have always advocated for Wilmington’s African-American community since it began in 1927 as the Cape Fear Journal.
Mrs. Thatch passed away in December, 2021 after a long illness. But before her death, she was also a staunch advocate for the Black Press, having won a “Publisher of the Year” Award from the National Newspaper Publishers Association, and serve as president of the NC Black Publishers Association.
She also was a strong advocate for the true history of the 1898 Wilmington Race Massacre to be taught statewide in schools across North Carolina, so that all students could learn how, on November 10th, 1898, powerful white businessmen and politicians, in conspiracy with the so-called white supremacist “Red Shirts” and others, violently overthrew the black-white “fusion” run government of Wilmington.
It was the only successful coup d’etat in United States history.
White racists, jealous of the tremendous progress African-Americans had made in Wilmington after the Civil War, murdered many by Gatling gun, stealing homes, properties and businesses at gunpoint, and burned down the Daily Record, the local daily Black newspaper, forcing its Black publisher, Alexander Manley, to flee for his life.
Ms. Thatch wanted all North Carolina students to learn the truth about 1898, so that hopefully, Wilmington could one day be reborn for its African-American community, which has suffered mightily since the massacre.
According to Attorney Irving Joyner, who was also vice chairman of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission, Ms. Thatch was a “strong proponent” of the Commission’s efforts to uncover the truth, lending assistance to its work, which came out in a 2006 report.
“One of the Commission’s recommendations, “ Attorney Joyner recalls, “… was that the 1898 history and report be made a part of the North Carolina standard curriculums in all schools.”
That did not happen. Instead, school systems statewide, to this day, allow teachers to instruct about 1898 if they want to, but they are not required.
In Wilmington/New Hanover County, third, fourth and eighth graders receive some 1898 instruction.
Three professors at UNC at Wilmington are preparing a course to actually instruct teachers on how to teach about 1898 to their students.
Lynn Mollenhauer, UNC-W History Dept. Chair, told the Wilmington Star News newspaper, “I think awareness of 1898 and the emphasis put on it in schools does wax and wane according to the political moment, especially within the white community in Wilmington.”
She's referring to a current movement by conservative politicians to prohibit so-called "critical race theory" curriculum from public education.
Through the Mary Alice Jervay Thatch Memorial 1898 Student Essay Competition, where all New Hanover County students in grades 8 through 12 were challenged in September by the WJBC to submit a 500-word essay about the 1898 Wilmington Race Massacre, the community group hopes it has started the process of fulfilling the recommendation of the 1898 race riot commission, and the dream of Mary Alice Jervay Thatch for all school students to learn the truth about 1898.
The winner of the 1898 Student Essay Competition, 11th grader Emily Powell, 16, of Cape Fear Academy in Wilmington, may have said it best in her prize-winning writing:
“…[T]hose who explore the true facts of events like the 1898 Wilmington Race Riots are also heroes - of this event and of our future. By simply acknowledging these narratives, understanding them, and most importantly, learning from them, everyone can become protagonists of this story, promoting future progress and preventing history from repeating itself.”
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MORGAN DROPS NEW
CAMPAIGN AD WHILE TWO
GOP CANDIDATES DROP
OUT ENTIRELY
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
As the calendar inches closer to the start of the December 5th candidate filing date in North Carolina, there’s movement in the race for governor, arguably the most important 2024 election campaign in the state.
Two comparably weak Republican gubernatorial candidates have seen the light, and have decided to drop out of the GOP primary to run for other offices, rather than face the juggernaut that is the frontrunner, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
Meanwhile, a new, well self-financed Republican candidate has not only jumped in while others are scurrying out, but he’s already put a campaign commercial on the air.
And the Republican frontrunner, Robinson, is staying in the thick of controversy, criticizing a large demonstration last week against the Israel - Hamas Middle East conflict that blocked traffic on the Durham Highway 147, by posting on social media “lawless disturbances are unacceptable."
An angry Robinson was upset that Durham Police did not forcefully try to remove the demonstrators.
“When I am governor, we will not tolerate protestors interfering with law-abiding citizens going about their daily lives," Robinson said. "The days of coddling lawlessness will be over. I'll move swiftly to order Highway Patrol to use any and all resources at their disposal to quickly clear roadways of these extremist displays."
In the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, retired NC Justice Mike Morgan was busy traveling the state, appearing at public events, shaking hands and making speeches wherever, and whenever he could, especially in the African-American community.
Morgan also unveiled a well-produced made-for-social media first campaign commercial in the race against Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner state Attorney General Josh Stein.
Titled “Hard Steps,” the three-minute and sixteen second video, Morgan said in a press release, “ ... is about my past and my vision for North Carolina’s future. I want people to know who I am, what I have been able to accomplish, and what I still want to do to make North Carolina a better place for all our people. My history, my integrity, and my values drive this campaign.”
The video has a child actor portraying Morgan as an eight-year-old black student in 1964 who first integrated Trent Park Elementary School in New Bern. Years later, it shows a sixteen-year old Mike Morgan becoming the first black drum major in a New Bern high school.
The video also notes that for the last 34 years, Morgan has served the state on the bench in various judicial capacities. That experience is what prepares him, he says, to be North Carolina’s next governor through the hard times..
“I know we can fix this, we just have to take those hard steps forward,” he said. “Marching towards progress can make a lot of people uncomfortable but being uncomfortable is God making us stretch ourselves, making us grow. So, if you’re ready to take those hard steps towards a brighter future for every North Carolinian, I’m ready to lead the way,” Morgan says in his campaign video.
While Mike Morgan was tugging at heartstrings with a heartwarming campaign video, his Democratic rival, Josh Stein was attempting to reach voters through a strong campaign op-ed in the Raleigh News and Observer Monday.
Titled, “What Republicans are doing to democracy in NC keeps me up at night,” Stein reminded readers that next year at this time, they will be going to the polls to select a new governor. He also blasted the Republican majority-led NC General Assembly for its skewed partisan voter districts, and its new laws designed to restrict voting.
“My challenge to you today — one year out from the 2024 election — is to keep the faith,” Stein wrote. “Keep your hope. Keep demanding your elected representatives stand for democracy. Keep organizing. Keep voting. Because some things are worth fighting for, no matter how tough it is. And yes, things in North Carolina right now are tough. But the people of North Carolina are worth fighting for. Our democracy is worth fighting for.”
Back over in the Republican race for governor, former Sixth District Congressman Mark Walker dropped out of the gubernatorial primary, trailing Mark Robinson’s projected 49%, to run for the newly-drawn Sixth District, which now includes a part of Guilford County, portion of eastern Forsyth County, all of Davidson, Davie and Rowan counties, and a portion of Cabarrus County.
Political newcomer and former healthcare executive Jesse Thomas, his campaign for governor barely registering in the polls, has dropped out and decided to run to unseat Democratic NC Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.
Marshall has served in office for the past 27 years.
And finally, former prosecutor Bill Graham, a former board member of the Jesse Helms Center, just recently entered the Republican race for governor as a staunch conservative.
To back it up, his $5 million self-funded campaign launched its first :30 second statewide ad, promising that if he’s elected, he will push for the death penalty for drug dealers and human traffickers.
Candidate filing begins December 5th, and ends December 15th.
Both the Democrat and Republican primaries are scheduled for March 5, 2024.
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