North Carolina Black Man Receives A Funeral 123 Years After Murder

After being murdered in the 1898 massacre of Black people in Wilmington, North Carolina by White supremacists, Joshua Halsey was honored with a funeral on Saturday. According to historical research group Third Person Project, Halsey’s unmarked grave is the first identified of what is thought to be over 100 victims. John Jeremiah Sullivan, who worked with the project, told reporters that there could be as many as 250 victims of the 1898 massacre.

A descendent of Halsey said that the discovery has been "surreal" for her family, telling CNN:

“We were in shock, because this is so unprecedented. But then we said, ‘You know what? Why not Joshua?' Why not be the beacon of what can happen when we sort of unearth the truth, uncover the truth and unpack it?” Brown said. “You know, this is where it’s going to start and the stories are going to come out as more victims are found, and we hear their stories. But we now know that it exists. We now know that we can change it. We now are getting the true history of what happened here.”

Wilmington was the home to many thriving, Black communities before the massacre. The 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission says Black people of the budding city at that time were employed in all segments of the workforce, as professionals, skilled artisans, government employees, maritime crew members, industrial workers, laborers and domestics. However, after the Democratic Party — the party of White supremacy at the time — won the county’s election by intimidating Black voters and tampering with the returns, armed White men burned down The Daily Record, Wilmington’s Black newspaper and then began attacking Black people.

According to a guide of the events published by the William Madison Randall Library of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the massacre has a had a lasting ripple effect on the city and changed the culture of Wilmington forever.

"The events of the 1898 coup marked a turning point in the post-Reconstruction South that changed the trajectory of race relations in North Carolina and marked the start of Jim Crow laws in the state, which further enforced racial segregation through the mid-20th century."

During Saturday's funeral, Halsey's descendant shared that although the entire situation has been painful, it’s also an opportunity for change.