The Marrow of Tradition

The events of The Marrow of Tradition take place amid ongoing backlash to Reconstruction (1865-1877), which aimed to integrate Southern states back into the US following the Civil War. Many Southerners bristled at the gains made by Black Americans during this period, resulting in the founding of white supremacist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and efforts to undo or work around new legal protections for Black Americans.

However, 1890s North Carolina was a partial exception to this rule, as an uneasy coalition of Black Americans and working-class white Americans resulted in electoral victories for a “Fusionist” movement of Republicans (historically anti-enslavement) and populists. In response to this threat to their power, wealthy white North Carolinians launched a propaganda campaign to stir up racist sentiment and ensure a Democratic victory in the 1898 elections. One key player in this campaign was Josephus Daniels, who owned the Raleigh News and Observer—the inspiration for Chesnutt’s Major Carteret and his Morning Chronicle.

The campaign had the desired effect throughout the state. However, the town of Wilmington (“Wellington” in The Marrow of Tradition) was the site of racist propagandizing and voter suppression as well as a white supremacist riot. Wilmington was a majority Black community, and many of its Black residents belonged to the professional or middle classes. Their success sparked particularly virulent opposition, as did the fact that the town’s multiracial government operated on a different election schedule and would therefore remain in place for at least several more months. Following bogus claims that Wilmington’s Black residents were preparing to stage an uprising, violence broke out on November 10, when white supremacist groups and militias burned down the offices of The Daily Record, a Black-owned newspaper, overthrew the local government, murdered dozens if not hundreds of Black residents, and forced other Black citizens (as well as some white Republicans) to leave the city.

In addition to its immediate cost in human lives, the Wilmington massacre marked a turning point in the state’s broader history. The newly elected Democratic government did as promised, enacting various white supremacist measures like poll taxes and literacy requirements (waived for white men through “grandfather clauses”) designed to prevent Black citizens from voting. It was not until the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century that these laws, and those enforcing segregation, were overturned.