By McCall Reeder
Intern
A local filmmaker who is shining a light on one of the darkest moments in Wilmington history held a screening for the documentary “Wilmington on Fire” for University of North Carolina Wilmington students last week, during which they explored the region’s complicated history of racial relations.
Director Christopher Everett’s feature-length documentary centers on the Wilmington race riot of 1898, a bloody massacre that is often passed over in recounts of the city’s history. Everett screened the film for students on Thursday, Jan. 21, and then hosted a panel discussion on the film’s theme.
“If we don’t understand the history then we are doomed to repeat it,” said panel moderator Kimberly McLaughlin Smith, UNCW’s diversity and inclusion specialist.
In the film, Wilmington natives as well as descendants of those directly affected by the race riot, like Alexander Manly’s grandson Lewin Manly, tell how it has shaped the city, its inhabitants and their own history. The panelists agreed that the event is rarely talked about in public or in private.
Everett, who is from Laurinburg, North Carolina, stepped in to explicitly detail the events that occurred before, during and after the 1898 massacre. Everett said it was important to discuss crucial events in history such as these.
The panel also included multimedia producer Jackie Olive, educator Jada Monica Drew, UNCW creative writing professor Phillip Gerard, and featured interview subjects from the film, Queen Quet and Kent Chatfield.
Smith asked Chatfield, an independent researcher of the 1898 riot, about what began his interest in this story years before being approached with the movie. As a Wilmington native, Chatfield recalled the story from his youth of finding human remains at age 7. Later, he discovered that the remains belonged to a member of the Wilmington Light Infantry, the militia that was ordered to calm the riot, but instead joined in the insurrection. After this, he began to look into the beginnings of the infantry and discovered more about the uprising.
Meanwhile, Queen Quet, a South Carolina native, explained that she had never heard about the riot growing up, even though she lived in such close proximity to North Carolina.
The Wilmington race riot of 1898 targeted the only African-American news publication in the city and continued on to target other African-American businesses in the town. It is estimated that anywhere from 60-100 black citizens were killed while more than 2,000 were exiled from the city. It is the only successful coup d’état in the nation’s history.
Despite that, it is still glossed over, Everett said.
Smith said it was her desire that learning this history would change the future.
“I’m so glad to see so many young people here because your generation is very hopeful for us and we are really depending on you guys to get this right,” Smith said.
UNCW students said the film screening and panel gave them a unique perspective on the history of the 1898 riot.
“I wish this film was required viewing for all incoming freshmen,” said student Caitlin Hall.
