The consequences of 1898 for African Americans in Wilmington included not only the exodus of family members and friends and business and community leaders due to fear; it also included the loss of economic opportunity. This had also been part of the "White Declaration of Independence" and a principle of white supremacy--that blacks must be put back in their subordinate place, never to rise to social, political, or economic equality again.

    Thus African Americans employed as police, or as firemen, or in other positions by the city government were fired and replaced by whites; within two years blacks employed by the county government were also fired, replaced by whites. Soon virtually all public employment was white.

Wilmington Police Department, 1909

    White supremacy also had a dramatic impact on black economic employment in the "free market". The "White Declaration of Independence" had declared the intention "to give the white men a large part of the employment heretofore given to negroes," in private, as well as public employment. With the support of the Secret Nine, Mike Dowling, the white labor leader and Redshirt, formed the White Labor Union and then the White Labor Bureau. The White Labor Bureau was to insure that no black would ever hold authority over a white, and that whites would replace blacks in desirable positions in the many companies along the riverfront, where blacks had fared well since the war.

 Wilmington Electric Company, 1909

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Link to 5.4
THE TRUTH IS SUPPRESSED