By james art 
“We’ve all done a good job of getting the message out and it’s just a testament to say, ‘Keep pushing. Keep stepping. Don’t throw in the towel.”
NEW HANOVER COUNTY (WWAY) — As the 126th anniversary of the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 approaches, there was a lecture at The Wilmington Sportsman Club comparing the events of the violent killings to the Jan. 6 uprising. The lecture was given by Dr. Herbert Harris. In this lecture he says that we should all continue to learn the history of what happened 126 years ago so that similar events do not happen in the future.
“Young white kids and young black kids came together, and despite things, they got along,” Harris said. They just saw that they were human beings.
A little further back, on November 10, 1898, a mob of 2,000 white Democrats overthrew Wilmington’s mixed-race government. They destroyed properties and homes built by black citizens.
Harris says this was all an organized movement, and without sharing the story with everyone, not only will it be forgotten, but it could potentially happen again, but in a different way.
Harris says the country has come a long way with integration, but we still need to share the story of what happened that day.
“We’ve all done a good job of getting the message out, and it’s just a testament to saying, ‘Keep pushing. Keep stepping. Don’t throw in the towel,” Harris said.
Rubye Braye was a visitor to the lecture on Monday. She remembers the time when the places were separated and then integrated.
“I was one of the first to integrate at my high school and it was horrible,” Bray said. “Every American should fight for democracy because our lives depend on it.”
After the lecture, the audience watched the film “The Red Nose”. This is a documentary explaining how 1898 is the only proven violent overthrow of a government in US history.