Sandy :"🏠 In 1898 African-Americans were a majority of Wilmington, NC’s population. The entire city was operated by colored people. Most owned homes and businesses in the city. Some houses were oceanfront. The city was independently black owned, having their own banks, newspapers and government. On November 10, 1898, white insurgents overthrew the elected government and forced black leaders out of the city. They massacred families, burned down their homes and businesses. It is considered the only successful coup, a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government, in American history. The blacks who survived never regained their land nor their power. All their financial assets were stolen illegally by the racist whites.