Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Thomas W. Clawson Papers #2792-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Louis R. Moore of Wilmington, N.C., in May 1944.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Suzanne Ruffing, July 1996

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Conscious Editing Work by: Nancy Kaiser, August 2020. Updated abstract, subject headings, and scope content note.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Clawson, Thomas W., fl. 1898.
• Manly, Alex.
• Newspaper editors--North Carolina--Political activity.
• North Carolina--Race relations.
• Riots--North Carolina--Wilmington--History--19th century.
• Wilmington (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Wilmington (N.C.)--Race relations--History--19th century.
• Wilmington Massacre, Wilmington, N.C., 1898.

Undated account (10 p.) of a white eyewitness, Thomas W. Clawson, then city editor of the Wilmington (N.C.) "Messenger," of the November 1898 Wilmington massacre and coup, called "race riots" by its white supremacist supporters, that murdered Black citizens, overthrew elected government, drove opposition Black and white political leaders out of Wilmington, and destroyed Black-owned property and businesses. Also included is a notarized copy of the editorial, 18 August 1898, concerning southern womanhood by African American newspaper editor Alexander L. Manly, which was used by white supremacists to incite the massacre and coup.