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INTRODUCTION
PHOTOS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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A
Statement of Facts Concerning the Bloody Riot in Wilmington, N.C.
The Rev. J. Allen Kirk
Kirk, pastor of the
Central Baptist Church of Wilmington, N.C., was one of the black citizens
who faced expulsion or death in November 1898.
His crime: leading “the Negroes in their depredations"
(Kirk 8). "Depredations" included the defiant expressions of Alex Manly,
editor of the "Record," the only black daily in the state and perhaps the
nation, and the increasing number of blacks holding "white-only" jobs such
as alderman, policeman, assistant janitor, and lot inspector (Hanover
9). Because he publicly joined the controversy over the Manly editorial,
Kirk's name was placed "upon the list of dangerous Negroes to be killed
or banished" (Hanover 98). Committing a further act of “depredation,”
Kirk published, most likely in exile, this undated account of the massacre
and his subsequent flight.
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