Theyd lost their power and wanted a return to normalcy. They stood back and they stood by as they carefully planned an insurrection to attempt to regain control. They turned to violence in an effort to make America great again.

This was the case for pro-Trump rioters in 2021. It was also the case for white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina , in 1898, in Americas first and only successful coup detat.

During the Reconstruction era, a period lasting about a decade after the Civil War until 1877, biracial governments came to power in cities across the South. Still reeling from defeat of the Confederacy, Southern Democrats often retaliated against this new power structure. On Nov. 10, 1898, a mob of white men marched on City Hall in Wilmington with their pistols and rifles to overthrow the local government and remove Black and white political leaders from their posts. They were successful. White supremacists took over. The mob destroyed Black-owned businesses, including the towns Black newspaper. Dozens of Black residents ended up dead.

What happened in Wilmington became an affirmation of white supremacy not just in that one city, but in the South and in the nation as a whole, author Laura Edwards wrote in Democracy Betrayed: The Wilmington Race Riot In 1898 And Its Legacy.