Location: 3rd St. at Red Cross in Wilmington
County: New Hanover
Original Date Cast: 2021
As Pastor of the prominent Central Baptist Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, J. Allen Kirk was a leader in the African American community in the port city. (The church is now called Central Baptist Missionary Church and is the oldest African American church in Wilmington.) He arrived in 1897 to be Central’s pastor. Kirk previously had served as pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Massachusetts. He is known as the only minister to provide a written account of the Wilmington coup of 1898: “A Statement of Facts Concerning the Bloody Riot in Wilmington, N.C.”
The events of November 10, 1898, in Wilmington constitute a landmark in North Carolina history. The event marked the climax of the white supremacy campaign of 1898 and a turning point in the state’s history. Restriction on black voting followed soon thereon marking the onset of the Jim Crow era of segregation.
Alfred Moore Waddell, a former Confederate officer and U.S. Congressman, in the days preceding the election of 1898 called for the removal of the Republicans and Populists then in power in Wilmington. What had particularly incensed Waddell and others was the publication in August of an Alex Manly editorial in the Daily Record, a local black-owned newspaper. The sexually charged editorial, reprinted across the state, provided Democrats with an issue to inflame racial tensions as Election Day approached. Yet the day passed without notable incident.
Two days later, from the armory of the Wilmington Light Infantry, Waddell led approximately 500 men to the Daily Record. The crowd swelled to perhaps 2,000 as they moved across town. Meanwhile, Manly fled the city. The mob invaded the building, a fire broke out, and the top floor of the building was consumed. Within hours violence had spread to other parts of the city. Afterward, the city’s current leadership, mayor and council members, resigned. Waddell then took office as mayor.
In his pamphlet, Reverend Kirk offers a vivid description of that day’s events and his personal escape from violence. As a religious leader in town, Kirk knew that he was targeted by the insurrectionists; they had publicly and threateningly suggested that he leave the city. On November 10, Kirk, writes historian Larae Umfleet, “evacuated his family to Pine Forest Cemetery.” (Historian John Haley writes that he left on November 13.) Kirk continued to Castle Hayne, and his family later joined him.
Kirk continued northward on a train. During his route, he evaded Red Shirts, or “Regulators” as he called them. There are some disagreements whether he evaded the Red Shirts at Wilson or Rocky Mount, but he eventually boarded a Petersburg-bound train.
Although Kirk is not listed in the city directories of the time, he was a prominent leader in the port city during a pivotal event.
Sources:
David C. Cecelski and Timothy B. Tyson, Democracy Betrayed: The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and Its Legacy (1998).
J. Allen Kirk, “A Statement of Facts Concerning the Bloody Riot in Wilmington, N.C.: Of Interest of Every Citizen of the United States” (1898).
LaRae Umfleet, “1898 Wilmington Race Riot Report” (2006).