The Wilmington massacre of 1898: a shocking episode of racist violence

North Carolina city marks 125th anniversary of the white-supremacist attack with a week of memorial events

The Equal Justice Initiative is a non-profit organization committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society. Guardian US has partnered with EJI to reprint this special feature, originally titled The Wilmington Massacre of 1898.

In the late 1890s, Wilmington, North Carolina, a port city between the Atlantic's barrier islands and the banks of the Cape Fear River, became an island of hope for a new America.