What sparked the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, a mass riot and insurrection carried out in Wilmington, North Carolina?

In 1899, Henry Litchfield West (1859-1940) Political Editor of The Washington Post published a short 35-page book on the Wilmington Insurrection, titled "The Race War in North Carolina."

The Wilmington insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898, was a mass riot and insurrection carried out in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, on Thursday, November 10, 1898. The white press in Wilmington originally described the event as a race riot. Since the late 20th century and further study, the insurrection has been characterized as a coup d'état, the violent overthrow of a duly elected government.

Multiple causes brought it about. The coup was the result of a group of the state's Southern Democrats conspiring and leading a mob. It has been described as the only incident of its kind in American history, because other incidents of late-Reconstruction Era violence did not result in the direct removal and replacement of elected officials by unelected individuals. The Wilmington coup is considered a turning point in post-Reconstruction North Carolina politics.