1898 124th commemorations continue at UNCW

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) – Events continued at UNCW to commemorate the 124th anniversary of the 1898 Wilmington Massacre and Coup d’État.

Thursday was the second day of the two-day symposium which explored justice, education, as well as integration through the story of The Wilmington Ten.

The events were free and open to the public and featured a variety of presentations from UNCW faculty, community members, educators, surviving ‘Wilmington Ten’ members, including people involved with their pardons.

The activist group was wrongly convicted of arson and conspiracy during the 1971 School Integration Protests in Wilmington, the case gained national attention, and garnered support for their release.

The convictions were overturned in 1980, all eventually received full pardons in 2012.
According to Upperman African American Center Executive Director Sean Palmer, learning about Black History shouldn’t only be reserved during these events, or Black History Month.

“I just hope that we’ll see that learning Black History is life-long, and so we hope that people are not just going to be stuck on MLK or Black history month but they will see something they can do every day,” he said.

A full list of events scheduled through November 13 can be found here.