American Coup: Wilmington 1898 examines how a white mob overthrew the democratically elected interracial government of a North Carolina town. Credit: Courtesy Image / American Experience

Just in time for the Fourth of July, the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM) is partnering with the city’s Office of Historic Preservation to present a documentary on the fundamentally American heritage of 

antidemocratic white supremacist violence in whose shadow we all live.

Showing at the Little Carver Civic Center on the East Side this Thursday, American Coup: Wilmington 1898, directed by SAAACAM collaborator Yoruba Richen, uncovers the story of the late-19th century massacre that transpired in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Initial accounts of the incident in the white press painted it as a race riot orchestrated by Black people. However, this 2024 doc offers a more historically accurate retelling.

In 1898, in the name of “restoring democracy,” an insurrectionist mob led by prominent white business leaders and politicians violently overthrew Wilmington’s democratically elected interracial government, burned the offices of the state’s only Black newspaper, The Daily Record, and killed and banished scores of Black residents.

The coup, one of the few successfully staged in the U.S., ushered in an era of voter suppression and segregation which lasted more than 70 decades, although its stain remains attractive for some in power today.

A panel discussion will follow the film.

Free but registration required, 5:30-9 p.m., Little Carver Civic Center, 226 N. Hackberry St., (210) 724-3350, saaacam.org.

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This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 9, 2025.