PBS sets premiere date for Wilmington 1898 documentary

A documentary project from PBS on the Wilmington 1898 massacre will premiere later this year.

With the working title of "Wilmington 1898: An American Coup," the documentary is scheduled to air on Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 9 p.m., according to a PBS news release. It will be part of the network's American Experience history series and available to stream for free simultaneously with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App.

It's the latest documentary to chronicle the nation's first successful coup. In November 1898, self-described white supremacists used intimidation and violence to overthrow the biracial Wilmington government, killing dozens of Blacks and forcing other to leave town under threat of death. Dozens if not hundreds of Black Wilmington residents left town and never came back.

To this day, the number of Black residents killed or run out of Wilmington is still not accurately known.

With major support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the PBS documentary is directed by Brad Lichtenstein and Yoruba Richen in association with PBS North Carolina and executive produced by Cameo George and Rachel Raney.

Wilmington 1898 coup and massacre:'Healing forward' with more work to be done

North Carolina native and Grammy Award-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens will contribute music. Richen and Lichtenstein have interviewed scholars and journalists, including David Zucchino, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy," as well as descendants of those involved in the massacre and coup, white and Black, who are seeking the truth about this long-buried history.

“By including some of the nation's foremost scholars, journalists, and descendants, we are able to weave together history and current day and show how the legacy of the 1898 and its violence has shaped our present in numerous significant ways,” Lichtenstein said in a 2023 news release about the project.

Other documentaries on Wilmington in 1898 include 2015's "Wilmington On Fire" produced by Christopher Everett, who is also working on "Wilmington On Fire II." Kent Chatfield released "McKinley's Guns" in 2022, which makes a connection to the massacre with the U.S. military.