Uncovering New Bern’s Coup of 1898

Editor Update, August 2023: The original title for this post was “Uncovering New Bern’s Bloodless Coup of 1898” — and the word “bloodless” has now been removed, after careful consideration and much discussion.  Comments were made that, “just because it was called a “bloodless” coup, doesn’t mean blood wasn’t shed”, and we are minimizing the harm that was caused when we highlight that it was said to be bloodless.  A coup is a coup.  If you’d like to join the discussion or add any comments, please scroll all the way down.  

— By Lee Guion

A few years ago, I uncovered a brief biography of my great-grandfather Owen H. Guion in a 1928 North Carolina history book. Included in the list of accomplishments and accolades heaped upon him was a sentence that would expand and alter my view of the Guion family, the city of New Bern, and my home state of North Carolina: “He first entered politics during the vital campaign of 1898, when the adoption of the constitutional amendment proved a turning point in the state’s history.”

I puzzled over the words “vital,” meaning “essential,” and “campaign,” meaning “an organized course of action to achieve a goal.” Also, the phrase “the constitutional amendment that proved a turning point.” Were these euphemisms? Were the events of 1898 so well-known and understood in 1928 that no explanation was necessary?

In May 2021, I chanced upon a blog post by historian David S. Cecelski, entitled “The Other Coup D’état: Remembering New Bern, N.C. in 1898.” Cecelski grew up in nearby Havelock and knows the area thoroughly. It was his luck to be given a copy of the Raleigh News & Observer from November 5, 1898, by a New Bern friend who found it among his family’s papers. Cecelski posted the front-page headline. It screamed:

PATIENCE CEASES

Ringing Resolutions Adopted by White Men

ASSEMBLED AT NEWBERN (sic)

WHITES WHO VOTE WITH NEGROES DENOUNCED 

AS TRAITORS TO RACE AND COUNTRY 

The newspaper article made clear the sense of urgency behind the state’s racist white supremacy movement, the campaign seen as vital to New Bern’s wealthiest and most influential white men to gain hegemony in politics and life in their city. Local and statewide elections were to be held on November 8^th.

David Zucchino’s damning book Wilmington’s Lie documents that North Carolina’s white-supremacy campaign was conceived in New Bern by Democratic Party leader Furnifold Simmons and the powerful editor and publisher of the News & Observer, Josephus Daniels. Together they coordinated the campaign’s strategy and implementation.

From 1867—when the U.S. Constitution was amended, giving African American men the right to vote—until 1899, newly enfranchised Black men joined with white men to support the Republican Party. They had small successes in electing Black candidates to local, state, and national offices. Three Black men served on the New Bern City Council of 11, and one was elected to the three-man Board of County Commissioners. Juries were often composed of an equal number of Black and white men. Black and white men served together for two decades without incident.

George Henry White, an attorney and Howard University graduate, was elected from Craven County’s 2^nd Congressional District to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1896, serving two terms. He was the one of the five Black U.S. congressmen elected from North Carolina during Reconstruction. White farmers and laborers of the Populist Party, seeking economic and political reforms and better schools, aligned with white and Black Republicans to challenge the moneyed interests of the Democratic Party. Together known as the Fusionists, this multiracial alliance won control of the state legislature in 1894.

The Democratic Party of the time was controlled by former plantation owners, wealthy white businessmen, and middle-class white professionals. At the mass meeting held at the Craven County courthouse on November 5, 1898, five resolutions were passed. They were almost identical to the resolutions passed by white supremacists 95 miles away in Wilmington. It appears attendees at New Bern’s white supremacist meeting knew of the violent coup their counterparts in Wilmington were planning. Resolution IV called for support and encouragement of “our brothers of the white race in other communities bravely daring all danger to rid themselves and us of the dark cloud of negro domination … and the horrible fate which threatens.”

The strategies of sowing fears of “negro domination,” racial division, voter intimidation, and threats of violence worked. Democrats won control of the state legislature. In 1899 the body passed a law to segregate train compartments, the first of many formal Jim Crow laws. In New Bern’s bloodless coup d’etat, 23 years of political, economic, and social gains made by Black New Bernians were destroyed in one fell swoop. White leaders convinced the new state legislature to dissolve New Bern’s city charter and replace duly elected officials with Democratic appointees.

But the most far-reaching result of the white supremacy campaign was the passage of a constitutional amendment to disenfranchise Black voters.

As noted in his biographical sketch, my great-grandfather used his leadership in the vital campaign to get elected to the N.C. House of Representatives in 1902. Two years later he was chosen speaker. In 1906 he was appointed judge of the Superior Court. In these powerful positions, Owen H. Guion was able to introduce, argue for, enact, and uphold Jim Crow laws that relegated African Americans to second-class citizenship, depriving them of newfound gains and access to rights now reserved solely for whites.

Sixty-seven percent of residents in New Bern were African American in 1890. The numbers declined after 1900 and today stand at only 33 percent, the lowest in the history of the city.

Seeing the rise in white-supremacy terrorism and the passage of the “suffrage amendment” of 1899 that effectively barred Black men from voting in the state, George H. White chose not to run for office again. He sold his house and moved to Washington D.C., stating, “I cannot live in North Carolina and be a man and be treated as a man.”

He was the last Black congressional representative elected from N.C. until 1992.

Restorative history involves recovery, relaying information, and repair. Wilmington only recently acknowledged its role in murdering and terrorizing its Black citizens. New Bern stands at the center of the region’s racially motivated insurrections. Although not a bloody coup, the devastating impacts of New Bern’s actions were the same. After 125 years it’s time for truth telling and meaningful restitution.

To read more about Cong. George H. White, click here and here.

For more information on the Black communities of New Bern, click here and here.

 

Author: Lee Guion (nee Lida Rodman Guion) is a daughter of the South who now lives in San Francisco. Her ancestors are white colonists, immigrants from England and France. They settled and thrived in New Rochelle, N.Y., and later the port city of New Bern, N.C. where they became respected members of the community (Guion, Hyman, Rodman, Whitehurst). In 2018, she began exploring her family’s debt to enslaved Black men, women, and children for much of their early comfort, financial success, and social status. Since uncovering her family’s extensive ties to slavery, she has committed herself to publicly acknowledging, researching, sharing her findings, taking action, and making restitution through truth telling, education, collaboration, and financial support. Lee is grateful for the guidance and support of members of Coming to the Table, especially, the San Francisco-Oakland Chapter, Linked Descendants, and the women of her writing pod. She is also grateful to linked descendant cousins of the Anderson family of Mars Hill and Asheville, who are on this journey with her.

©2023, Lee Guion. All rights reserved.

 

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