1898年,共和党的白人再次通过选举当上了市长,共和党的白人和黑人再次通过选举组成了市议会。
选举结果两天后,两年前败选的民主党候选人 Alfred M. Waddell 宣布不承认选举,He is not my mayor, 带领1500民主党的拥戴者,焚烧(焚烧,又一个多么熟悉的词汇)了当地的黑人报社,用枪顶着选举出的市议会成员辞职,然后由他们的候选人继任。然后由新的市议会选举Waddell为新市长。
In the 1890s, a coalition of Republicans and Populists had gained state and federal offices. The Democrats were determined to reassert their control. There was increasing violence around elections in this period, as armed white paramilitary insurgents, known as Red Shirts, worked to suppress black and Republican voting. White Democrats regained control of the state legislature and sought to impose white supremacy, but some blacks continued to be elected to local offices.
The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 (formerly and inaccurately called a race riot) occurred as a result of the racially-charged political conflict that had occurred in the decades after the Civil War and efforts by white Democrats to reestablish white supremacy and overturn black voting. In 1898, a cadre of white Democrats, professionals and businessmen, planned to overthrow the city government if their candidates were not elected. Two days after the election, in which a white Republican was elected mayor and both white and black aldermen were elected, more than 1500 white men (led by Democrat Alfred M. Waddell, an unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate in 1896) attacked and burned the only black daily newspaper in the state and ran off the new officers. They overthrew the legitimately-elected municipal government. Waddell and his men forced the elected Republican city officials to resign at gunpoint and replaced them with men selected by leading white Democrats. Waddell was elected mayor by the newly seated board of aldermen that day.