In the spring of 1898, the statewide Democrat party, led
by Josephus Daniels, editor of the Raleigh News and Observor, decided
on a white supremacist campaign, in order to wrest political control of
the state back from the Fusionists.
In Wilmington, Hugh MacRae and eight other Democrats--J.
Alan Taylor, Hardy I. Fennell, W. A. Johnson, L. B. Sasser, William Gilchrist,
P. B. Manning, E. S. Lathrop, Walter L. Parsley--formed "the
Secret Nine." This group began to organize to seize the city government
by violent means after the state elections in the fall. This group maintained
close contact with the statewide Democrat white supremacist campaign.
Col. Walker Taylor did not join the Nine, but formed his
own group, "the Group of Six." This group
included John Berry, Henry G. Ferrell, Thomas D. Meares, and William Smith.
These men secretly organized to deliver victory to the Democrats in the
fall county and state elections.
Racist cartoon from the Raleigh News and
Observor
As part of the white supremacist campaign of intimidation,
White Government unions were formed, along with a paramilitary group, the
Redshirts. These armed groups marched openly in the fall campaign.
The Democrats contended that the city government under Mayor
Wright was corrupt and ineffective, and that there was a "breakdown
of law and order" under the black Republican leadership. Fusionists
countered that reports of black crime were orchestrated for political purposes
by the white supremacist newspaper, the Wilmington Messenger, and
that the Mayor was held in respect by the majority of citizens, including
many Democrats.
Many whites, who had grown up in the era of slavery, could
not adjust to a new social order, in which African Americans were their
political equals.
One account tells of an incident in which Hugh MacRae, standing
in the downtown street talking with an other white businessman, had to
move out of the way of a carriage driven by a black driver, who did not
drive around them. This apparently symbolized rising black "insolence"
to MacRae, and may have settled him in his determination to overthrow the
city government by whatever means necessary.
