The Wilmington coup is the only successful coup in American history.

Evidence

A mob of more than one thousand white men overthrows the elected biracial local government in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the only successful coup in American history. Organized by white supremacist politicians virulently opposed to the prospect of elected Black city officials, the mob destroys a thriving Black business district, kills scores of Black people, and drives thousands from their homes; many of them will never return. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 858

Categorization

• SHARE: The fact that America’s only successful coup was a white supremacist overthrow of a biracial elected government is a striking tidbit for someone interested in American political history.
• SEED: Article angle: the erased 1898 Wilmington coup as an overlooked inflection point in how America’s origin story of democratic promise fails to account for violent white resistance to Black political power.