November 9, 2023 • 49 mins
Brace yourself for an enthralling conversation with acclaimed Wilmington-based filmmaker, Chris Everett, as we journey into the oft-ignored annals of America's history - the 1898 Wilmington massacre. This chilling event chronicles an actual overthrow of an established government and the white supremacist movement that masterminded it. Chris, with his meticulous research and gripping narrative, helps us navigate this tumultuous period, giving us a front-row seat to the horrific incidents that left a lasting impact on Wilmington and its African American community.
From the gripping tales of the past, we transition into a critical examination of the role of propaganda and voter disenfranchisement in fanning the flames of violence. It's a thought-provoking reflection that puts the 1898 incidents as a stark mirror to our current political climate. But fret not, it's not all darkness and despair. We shift gears and plunge into the fascinating world of martial arts, where we shed light on the inspiring story of Vic Moore, one of the first professional Black karate champions in America.
This episode is an absolute must-listen for any history enthusiast or social justice advocate. Let Chris Everett's award-winning documentary "Wilmington on Fire" serve as your beacon, helping you navigate through the murky depths of America's past. It's an episode that transcends the realm of a typical history lesson and serves as a powerful reminder of how understanding our past can shape a more equitable future. So, buckle up and get ready to be moved, enraged, inspired, and enlightened by this riveting conversation.
To learn more about the Wilmington Massacre of 1898:
- https://www.nhcgov.com/604/Wilmington-Massacre-1898
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898
Where to watch "Wilmington On Fire" - https://www.kweli.tv/
Information on "Wilmington On Fire" - @wilmingtononfire
Information for "Grandmaster" - @gmdocumentary
To learn more about the 3 Chambers Fest - https://www.3chambers.com/
To follow Chris Everett - @spellerstreetchris
Click HERE to let us what you think! Or, suggest a guest!
Finnleigh would like to remind everyone that a 5-star rating from each of you would be a huge push for the podcast in the algorithms that suggest podcast to listeners. Please take a second to give us a 5-star rating when you get the chance! Thanks so much!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott (00:00):
Chris Everett is the Wilmington based film producer
and director of theaward-winning documentary film
Wilmington on Fire, as well asthe documentary Grandmaster the
Vic Moore Story.
He's the founder and presidentof Speller Street Films and is
the artistic director for theSouthern Documentary Fund.
He's currently working on hisfollow-up film, wilmington on
Fire Part 2.
I'm very honored to have himhere.
Chris Everett, welcome toCarney Saves the World.
Chris Everett (00:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll do it one day.
Scott (00:24):
Thank you again for coming on.
We got some important stuff totalk about.
This is a very important topic.
I was not aware of theWilmington riots massacre.
I was not aware of that at alland I'm kind of shocked by it
because I have a history degreeFrom up north.
You know I could see if theyweren't teaching it down south.
Right, you know, with the lostcause deal that adjusted the
(00:45):
education system down here for awhile, but up north we're not
learning about this, right.
Right, could you just tell us alittle bit about it from what
you've researched?
Chris Everett (00:52):
Well you know, the Wilmington massacre of 1898
is pretty much considered one ofthe only examples of an actual
overthrow of an existinggovernment here in the United
States of America.
This happened on November 10th1898 in the beautiful city of
Wilmington, North Carolina.
You know, what makes it reallyunique is that back then this is
over 30 years after slaverywhere you had this thing that
(01:16):
was going on in several statesin the South, a thing called
fusion.
And so this fusionist movement,kind of combined black
Republicans, white populists,kind of coming together and
saying you know, let's fusetogether, let's try to become a
political power to get our folksin office, and so you saw a lot
of that happening in Wilmington.
But you also had a whitesupremacist movement that was
(01:38):
just not only in Wilmington butthroughout the state of North
Carolina that really wanted toreverse all of these changes
that was happening in the stateof North Carolina and
specifically in Wilmington.
And that's how we got the whole1898 massacre that happened.
And a lot of people might befamiliar with Tulsa, rosewood,
those things.
But Wilmington was before bothof those racial massacres that
(01:59):
happened here in the UnitedStates and, like you were saying
earlier, a lot of us stilldon't know about it.
A lot of us didn't know aboutit until, I would say, you know
Wilmington on fire really comingout and really exposing a lot
of this stuff.
Scott (02:11):
So how did you pick that as your?
Chris Everett (02:13):
Well, it wasn't my first one.
It was my first completed one,and so it was kind of like it's
going to answer your question atthe same time.
So my very first documentarywas about where I'm from.
I'm from Lawnburg, northCarolina, scotland County.
Lawnburg is about.
If you go across the bridge inWilmington, the Cape River
Bridge, you know it's right on74.
(02:33):
It takes you right throughLawnburg.
Man, lawnburg is like thehalfway mark from here to
Charlotte, and so it's about anhour and a half from here, and
so I grew up there.
I've been involved in history mywhole life.
I grew up right around thequarter from the Lawnburg
Institute.
It's a historical blackboardingin day.
School started in 1904, beenthe same family for three
generations.
(02:54):
My grandfather went to schoolthere, my godfather he went to
school there.
He was the alumni president foryears.
You know I collected all theseold archival stuff for them over
the years and so that was goingto be my first film.
That was my first film aboutthe Lawnburg Institute, but I
totally failed at it and neverfinished it.
All I did was really collect alot of archival materials, a lot
(03:15):
of art or histories, and so Inever put it together.
But recently I was hired toactually use a lot of my
archival material for a bookthat's coming out about the
Lawnburg Institute.
It's actually coming out thisFebruary, coming up Great and so
I supplied all the photos forthat book.
But with the documentary film Ididn't get the complete, I
didn't get to finish it, butwhile doing that I found out a
(03:36):
lot of stuff about the 1898massacre.
And when I tell people a lot oftimes people think that the
Wilmington massacre is justrestricted to Wilmington and
that's not true at all.
This was a statewide movementof white supremacy.
Even where I'm from, there wasinvolvement from people in my
town.
I grew up in Lawnburg.
So, for example, when you watchWilmington on fire and you see
these pictures where we talkabout the red shirts and stuff
(03:58):
like that, you know the redshirts were, you know, similar
to the Klu Klux Klan.
They were white supremaciststype of organization really
tried to restrict AfricanAmericans from voting on in
businesses where they didn'twear any sheets.
They came out and broughtdaylight.
So all the pictures that yousee of red shirts in my film,
those aren't red shirts fromWilmington.
All those pictures are redshirts from Lawnburg.
(04:19):
Okay, then finding out that alot of red shirts that
participated in the Wilmingtonmassacre of 1898, a lot of them
came from Lawnburg as well, andso that sparked my interest,
when I didn't get to finish thatfilm, I said you know what?
Let me look more into thisWilmington 1898 story Because I
see how it connects to Lawnburg.
And then also I started doingsome research, found out that
(04:39):
Lawnburg really was thekickstart to that whole election
of 1898, that white supremacycampaign of 1898, they
kickstarted that campaign inLawnburg with a huge rally in
May of 1898.
That really kickstarted therest of that year for this whole
white supremacy push which ledto the 1898 massacre.
(04:59):
So I said you know what?
Let me go ahead and see if Ican tell you this story because
it really relates to where I'mfrom.
Scott (05:06):
Yeah.
Chris Everett (05:06):
And there's a lot to that, so let me go ahead and
tackle this.
I didn't see that no one wasdoing a documentary on it, and
so you know what we're going togive it a shot in the rest of
history.
Scott (05:15):
Folks that are listening, go watch this film.
It's amazing.
I watched it a second timeyesterday.
It's so informative, it's sowell done and it is just a
really crazy time.
I mean you can't even describeit until you see the film and
you see what happened and howthe only coup d'etat in the
United States to ever besuccessful and it happened here
(05:36):
in Wilmington they removed theentire government and started
new, and it was all white people.
It's a pretty crazy, crazystory.
Chris Everett (05:43):
And you know, in the cities never really fully
recovered from that event.
Now the the black populationhas steadily been on the decline
.
It's gotten up a little bit.
I was sort of the past coupleof years To me I think that was
because of COVID where peoplecould kind of move around with
their jobs, with their salariesand kind of just move wherever
they wanted to.
So you kind of started to seethat black population kind of go
(06:07):
up.
Even I moved here during thepandemic, so I'm included in
that percentage as well becausewe could actually move around
with some of our jobs.
Now A lot of jobs went remote,some people started their own
businesses so they couldactually move around a little
bit.
But it still hasn't grown to alevel of what it was prior to
the 1998 massacre.
But a lot of people are tryingto change that.
Scott (06:29):
So we moved down here in 2017.
And it was right around thetime that there was just this
big push to rename Humacrae Park.
And, for those listening,humacrae Park is probably the
largest park in Wilmington.
The land was donated by thiswe'll just say, quote unquote,
rich guy Humacrae.
We can talk about how he gothis money, but he donated all
(06:51):
this land for a park.
And then, when you startdigging into it, the park's main
purpose was solely for whitepeople.
It was never to be used byanyone else besides white people
.
But yet in 2016, this guy'sdamn name was still on the
billboard.
And I remember getting indebates with people about it and
I'm like that's just wrong andthe story like it's just a bit
(07:12):
shitty and it's wrong, andpeople couldn't understand.
I would have these arguments,chris, and people would come
back to me and they'd be like,well, we didn't do it.
Well, it's not.
That's at the point.
So since then it's obviously ithas been changed to Longleaf
Park, which but that kind of gotme thinking well, what else is
going on in Wilmington?
And then I started hearing thestories and your documentary had
(07:32):
come out, but I hadn't gotten achance to see it back then.
You know, brought a lot oflight to a very, very dark time
in Wilmington, and the US haspassed.
Chris Everett (07:38):
For sure.
And then we saw a lot of thisget exposed, especially, you
know, during the beginning ofthe pandemic with the murder of
George Floyd.
You saw a lot of investment,the name change kind of happened
with Humacrae Park as well, andthen you started seeing a lot
of the monuments getting takendown really across America.
But specifically, you knowwe're talking about Wilmington.
You know we started to see alot of that happen throughout
(08:00):
the city as well.
People have been telling peopleto change these names for years
.
But it wasn't until, you know,when George Floyd was murdered
and during the pandemic, youknow, we started to finally see
some movement with those things.
Scott (08:11):
Yeah, so when you start putting this film together,
obviously there's a fundraisingcomponent to it.
Yeah, did you get pushback?
Did people not want to attachmoney to something that was
possibly a controversial topic?
Chris Everett (08:23):
It was mostly because, you know, it was my
first film and also and peopledon't realize this and now a lot
of people are making films on1898 now got shorts out there,
other type of features, but whenI was putting this together no
one was doing it.
No one was making it, wasn'teven trying to do a film on 1898
.
I didn't get the support or thefunding because of that.
(08:44):
It was just that I guess justno one cared about even talking
about the subject.
You know what I'm saying.
It really wasn't a hot topiclike that at the time.
You know, no one was reallytrying to do anything on it
besides us.
You know my team and stuff likethat.
So we kind of went under radarwith this thing.
We knew that, okay, this isn'ta popular topic at the time, we
probably won't get the funding,but let's figure out a way to
(09:06):
get it going.
Yeah, and so it was, like youknow, several different ways.
I use my own money a lot oftimes.
A lot of times people work forreally free or cheap a lot of
times.
And then also, I did a coupleof crowd funding campaigns and
then, for post-production, outthe blue, an NBA player actually
gave me the remainingpost-production funds.
To finish up, post-production,david West.
He's retired and, as a retiredNBA player, oh, yeah, yeah, but
(09:28):
he actually gave me thefinishing funds on the finish
andhe heard about me through like a
blog, this, mark Anthony Neal,who has a blog called Left to
Black.
He's a history professor atDuke University and he's a huge
supporter of what I've beendoing over the years and he so.
He wrote a couple of storiesabout me doing this film and
David frequents his blog.
And he reached out.
He said man, is this film bad?
(09:49):
I want to get a copy of it, Iwant to see it.
And Mark told him, said man,it's not done.
I think he's still trying toget some money together for
post-production.
And then Mark hits me up.
He said hey, david West and hispeople hit me up.
Man, they're interested in moreand more about your project and
it could be a way for you tofinish it.
And so that's how we made thatconnection.
Man, it's really David West andlooking at Mark's blog.
(10:10):
And then Mark hitting me up,letting me know that hey, david
is interesting in partneringwith you Get this thing done.
And that's how we got it done,man, that's awesome and the rest
is history.
And then.
So now getting Women's no Fire2 funded was a whole lot easier,
because doing getting the firstone done, getting on the road,
getting all these accolades anddoing all this stuff over the
past five, six years with thatfilm that kind of let people
(10:33):
like you know, chris, I see youwant to do a part two.
We're going to get behind thisnow, and so funding things went
better and easier with Women'sno Fire 2 than it was with the
first one, but I wouldn't changeit for the world, man, I
learned so much during thegrassroots way.
Scott (10:47):
Yeah, I can't imagine how much you've learned over that
course of the whole project.
One of the other people that iscoming on as, I think, an
executive producer for part twois Hilary Burton.
Yeah yeah, I want you to hear.
Chris Everett (10:57):
Yeah.
Scott (10:58):
Yeah, I've got a lady friend that are that are one
tree hill freaks and like I livedown here and they're like do
you drive by where they?
Yeah, I drive by there, butyeah, so she's going to be
helping out.
Chris Everett (11:07):
Huh oh yeah, yeah , she's been.
She's been a huge help andsupport man.
Like I said, women's no Fire 2has gotten a lot of support.
But the thing is, I connectedwith Hilary.
It was during the pandemic, youknow, when a lot of stuff was
happening.
You know, in our country a lotof stuff was happening here in
Women's 10.
I know I think someone sentHilary the video, sent the
Women's no Fire copy of it, andshe checked it out and she loved
(11:28):
it and she's like, oh man, Inever knew about this history
and I lived in Women's for 10years.
And so she she went on IG, onInstagram, and did a video and
gave me a shout out and so I sawall these people started
following me.
That's awesome.
I like, oh, these peoplefollowing me for that scroll now
.
That's why it's Hilary Burtontagging me and then.
So I looked at the video.
So I hit it up in the DM and say, hey, thank you again for the
(11:50):
support.
I really appreciate you likingthe film and liking what I do.
And she hit me back and then wejust started texting each other
and you know we talked on thephone and she said, chris, I
like what you're doing.
And I tell her that's a hey,I'm about to start production on
part two.
And she was like hey, if youneed anything, let me know.
I really love what you're doing.
With the first one, she broughtme on our IG live I'm chat talk
(12:10):
that she brought us.
From time to time they're likea million viewers, wow, you know
.
So I was able to tap into heraudience.
You know that one tree hereaudience and stuff like that and
so she wanted to get involvedwith part two, man, and so I say
let's do it.
And so she's been a hugesupport over the past couple of
years, and just not only withwomen's no fire, but no other
questions that I might haveabout doing film and trying to
(12:30):
grow my career she's just beenmore than helpful.
Scott (12:33):
She's married to.
Chris Everett (12:34):
Oh, jesse, jesse, Morgan, yeah, from the walking
dead, jesse, that is husband.
Scott (12:37):
So this isn't like an angle to try to get a zombie
role, is it no?
Chris Everett (12:42):
not, at all Not at all.
Scott (12:43):
Not at all.
I'm a dot guy, so that'sfantastic.
I mean to know that you'regoing into part two with.
You know, all that weight offyour shoulders that you had
going into part one is just gotto be, you know an amazing way
to start it off it is.
Chris Everett (12:55):
It is, you know it's good and bad pressure.
So the pressure of thinkingabout the funding aspect but the
other person was that you knowyou don't want to have like a
soft, most you know flop, youknow type of deal, you know,
because the first one did somuch man and really, you know,
led to a lot of change, a lot ofthe change that we're seeing in
North Carolina in Wilmington.
(13:16):
Really that film helped withthat and so that film is
probably going to go down is.
You know, even if I do some ofthe best films artistically and
everything, wilmington on Fireis probably always going to be
my number one film for everybody.
That's what everybody's goingto know me for, and so it's
going to be hard to top that.
But I think we're going to comeclose with it.
(13:37):
For part two, because westepped that game all the way up
, man.
We stepped it upproduction-wise, visually,
sound-wise and story-wise aswell.
So I just wanted to show, youknow, the growth as a filmmaker
and storyteller also with thisnext project.
Scott (13:50):
So part one goes up through 1898.
I forgot to mention.
One of the reasons why I wantedto sit down with you and have
this conversation is this comingFriday, november 10th, is the
125th anniversary of themassacre, so I really wanted to
put a lot of emphasis on thatand make sure that people will
honor those folks that losttheir lives and lost their
(14:10):
livelihoods during it.
So we go through 1898, correctme if I'm wrong.
You do touch up into the 1900election, which is kind of a
kind of a shady thing, I guess.
Basically 1898, they kickedeverybody out and then the white
people all ran again for thesame offices that they stole and
mysteriously they won,amazingly.
Chris Everett (14:31):
And all over the state.
You know as well.
You know what I'm saying.
It was a, it was a cool.
It was a cool they taught allover the state of North Carolina
.
Yeah, you know Wilmington.
You know they didn't want towait for the actual local
elections to happen.
So they just say, you know,let's just take over the
government locally.
Yeah, like you said, and thenwhen 1900 came around, let's
just revote ourselves back inhere again.
Scott (14:52):
Yeah, one of the aspects was obviously there was a
massacre and the number of folkskilled fluctuates, whether you
look at it anywhere from what?
60 to maybe a thousand.
Chris Everett (15:02):
Possibly.
You know, we don't know thereal game number.
We know that some people werekilled and a lot of people left
the city or run out.
Scott (15:10):
There were specific trains.
I mean, this is a crazy concept.
They brought trains in to truckpeople out of the city.
Just get your stuff and get out, and that's.
That's insane.
But you know, one of the statsthat I was looking at it was,
you know, 1898 or the census of1897, I think it said it was
about 60, 40 black to whiteratio and then two years later
(15:31):
it was 75, 25, white to black.
And that's another crazy stat.
Chris Everett (15:36):
And it's still about that way now.
So I think it's about, I think,black population maybe 19
percent.
Yeah, it used to be a littlethan that.
It used to be about 15 to 17.
Like I said, the past couple ofyears it's kind of went up a
little bit, but it's like at 19,around 19 percent now.
So oh, really OK.
Scott (15:52):
You know so many people lost their businesses, their
jobs, their livelihoods, theirlives, obviously, right.
One of those people was AlexManley.
Could you tell us a little bitabout him and what your opinion
is on him?
Yeah, because he did somethingreally brave and revolutionary
back then, right, right, I reada lot of articles that say that
maybe it wasn't the best idea atthe time, but I wanted to hear
what your thoughts were.
Chris Everett (16:12):
Well, you know Alex Manley.
You know he he's pretty muchknown for.
You know, when people pull up aresearch 1898, they see the
burned down building where youhave the whole bunch of the
right mob standing in front ofthis burned down building.
That's his newspaper, pressthat was burned down.
You know he was heavilyinvolved in the Republican Party
(16:33):
at the time.
You know, at that time theRepublican Party was very
different than how we view ittoday, but he was heavily
involved in that.
He was a business owner inWilmington at the time had the
Wilmington Daily Record, whichis a daily, you know, black
owned newspaper.
But they pretty much kind ofused a controversial article
that he added in his paper toreally, you know, rally up the
(16:55):
white supremacists in thatmovement to really kickstart and
just upstart the 1898 massacre.
Now I've heard other storiesthat he didn't actually write
the article, you know.
So, yeah, there has been somestories about that that he
didn't even write the articlebut it came through his paper.
So he has to take the blame forit because he is, he was the
main editor and owner of it andso how did they get through his
(17:17):
credit through the cracks?
I don't know, but it is what itis.
You know he was very vocalabout racism at the time as well
and you know he was.
They were actually going to tryto kill him but he was able to
get out of Wilmington before,you know, the massacre happened
and before they burnt down hisnewspaper building him and his
(17:38):
brother, frank Manley, who theyran and operated the Wilmington
Daily Record in Wilmington, andhe left and never came back to
Wilmington, you know, ever again.
He lived in Philadelphia to theday he died.
Scott (17:50):
I was listening to a podcast with Leray Umphlep, the
historian in North Carolina, andshe was saying she's into film.
The person asked her had AlexManley not wrote that article,
would this have still happened?
And she said yes, it would have.
Chris Everett (18:05):
Yes, which is crazy, because it is just
something they used.
They were going to usesomething that was just
something that was convenient atthe time.
Because, like I said, that'swhat really sparked my interest
in this, because even inLawnberg, you know, they did
certain things that were similarto what happened in Wilmington.
For example, people realizethat Lawnberg's part of Scotland
(18:25):
County, right, but prior to1898, scotland County didn't
exist, lawnberg's part ofRichmond County.
Then you look at the records,the same type of fusion, this
type of stuff was happening inLawnberg, and so the white
supremacists, out of things theywanted to separate, then they
were trying to create ScotlandCounty back then, but they
couldn't do it.
And so when the massacrehappens and all this stuff
(18:46):
starts shifting throughout NorthCarolina and politics, they
then were able to break awayfrom Richmond County and start
Scotland County, which theywanted to do to kind of, you
know, have their own democraticrule, white supremacy type rule.
So, you see, you saw that typeof stuff happening all the time.
Man, where this type of stuffwas going to happen, yeah, they
just, you know, used certainthings that were convenient at
(19:08):
the time to really justify, youknow doing what they were trying
to do.
Scott (19:13):
When we say massacre, it was a massacre.
One of the things that KenChapfield in your movie talks
about is the Gatling gun thatwas used.
And then I did some moreresearch on it and it was like
25 people that were blown awayby a Gatling gun for no reason
other than the color of theirskin and they were in that
particular spot at that time,right.
Chris Everett (19:32):
Right, oh, yeah, it was very.
It was very bloody.
I was very bloody, like I said.
I think that's why theWilmington massacre really is at
the top of people list becauseof the bloodshed that happened
during the time, like you said,with the Gatling gun and with
the other artillery that wasused as well during this time.
Yeah, it was definitely amassacre, man, that the city of
(19:55):
Wilmington, the state of NorthCarolina or the federal
government really hasn't helpedrepair at all their damage.
Scott (20:01):
Yeah, they've done absolutely nothing.
I think the state may haveapologized at one point, or
should we?
Yeah, that's it, that's it.
You know nothing from areparation standpoint or any
compensation for land lost,lives lost.
Anything has been given up.
Chris Everett (20:16):
Now back in, back in 2000, and we're going to
talk about this in part too thatback in 2006,.
So 2006 and 2008,.
Right, so when LaRae comes outwith a report that helped push
the series of bills that wascreated by a few, you know,
legislator folks, and so thesebills are still, you can still
look these bills up.
I got a copy of my sentiment toyou and so this is back.
(20:38):
These bills happened back in2007, 2008.
And so it was a series ofreparations bills, not only that
pass now.
So one was to directlycompensate people like Dr Lauren
Manley, who's in my film FaithChaplin, you know, great grant.
So the compensate directdescendants that could prove
losses from the 18 idea ofMassacre.
(20:59):
That was one bill.
Another bill was to teach thishistory and implement this
history into K through 12 schoolcurriculum, you know I'm saying
.
Another one was to create atraveling museum.
To go all over the state, youknow, start collecting artifacts
, photos, documents to puttogether a traveling museum, to
start educating people about it,to create two black business
(21:22):
incubators in the north side andthen Castle Street area home
loans for black and minoritycitizens.
Also, to pay a productioncompany 500,000 to do what I did
a documentary as well.
So there's, a series of stuff,series of bills, a lot of stuff
I passed through man.
Wow, a lot of it, and you canstill look these bills up.
Scott (21:43):
It's about 10 of them you can still look them up now.
That's nuts.
The other thing is all thepeople that were part of it.
You know there was a group ofnine of them.
That's kind of started it allout.
These folks all lived prettyprosperous lives.
These white guys that took overand stole land and everything
else.
Chris Everett (22:00):
Oh yeah, for sure , for sure.
And that thing is man.
They all became big timephilanthropists.
So when you look at after 1898happens and you get towards more
of the 1900s and startinggetting to 1920 and 1930, you
see a lot of these guys' namespop up in buildings, certain
buildings and certainuniversities, Because, like I
(22:21):
said, they're big business guys.
But then they started gettinginto politics even more, they
started doing the philanthropything, they started donating to
certain universities andinstitutions and then so people
started memorializing thesefolks and then later on you find
out that they were heavilyinvolved in the 1898 massacre
and those type of things and wesaw that happen.
(22:43):
That exposed a lot.
Not only were women to the fire, but when the pandemic happened
, when people were talking aboutchanging some of these, these
building names and taking downsome of these statues, a lot of
that stuff started coming tolight.
Scott (22:54):
Yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
I was looking up some of themand I mean for the majority, it
seems that a lot of them havebeen pulled off.
The names have been pulled downand changed to more respectful
names, but there's still acouple of universities and it
was Clemson that still has twoor three buildings, and they're
just.
That's their gig.
They're not changing it.
And Duke was like that too.
Chris Everett (23:14):
Yeah, some places , man, they're not changing
nothing.
They say, you can say whatever,we're not doing it.
Yeah, obviously, south Carolinaman, they're worse than North
Carolina because the guy thatactually started the whole red
shirt concept was from SouthCarolina, ben Tillett.
Okay, he actually he's onrecord saying that the people in
North Carolina, when Manly didthat article, they said if that
(23:37):
in-bed Manly was down here, wewould have hung him a long time
ago.
Jesus, you know what I'm saying.
So, south Carolina man, theywere actually way worse than
North Carolina even during thattime.
And so I see why that placeslike Clemson and stuff like that
are kind of behind on thosethings.
Scott (23:54):
And then we have to talk about Rebecca Latimer, right,
right, probably one of the worsthuman beings.
I would thank you.
Chris Everett (24:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Rebecca Latimer felt she kindof moved this speech I think it
was called Women on the Farmjust talking about white men
need to hold up white supremacy,protect white womanhood, all
those things that really rallyup the troops and just ruffle up
the crowd.
And then, like say, alex Manlykind of read that and wanted to
(24:23):
write a rebuttal.
They said that he didn't writeit we never know but someone
wrote it, the rebuttal aboutwhat she said and that really
gave ammunition for this whole1898 campaign to come to life
and that eventually led to the1898 massacre.
Scott (24:42):
To the best of your knowledge, in the film they also
talk a lot about people andbodies and other possessions and
stuff just being thrown in theCape Fear River Right.
Black possessions,unfortunately black bodies just
thrown in the river.
To the best of your knowledge,has the river ever been dragged
for anything or have they evereven looked?
Chris Everett (25:01):
No one's ever done any of that.
I know a lot of people, I thinksince Women to no Fire, a lot
of people have asked that samequestion you have been asking.
I'm one of them one of themever but hopefully one day we
can make something like thathappen.
But for right now, no one'sever done anything like that at
all.
But I know that's somethingthat I would love to push for
(25:22):
and to figure out how toactually push for it.
Scott (25:25):
Yeah.
So there's a lot of propagandathat almost a year of propaganda
that went out before thisreally started to kick in, and
then it riled the crowd up somuch that they just couldn't
control themselves.
I mean there were gatling gunsand rifles and people being
beaten, and just you can'tignore the similarities between
1898 and January 6th.
They seem sort of connected.
(25:47):
It seems.
They gave blueprint, so tospeak, of that and maybe all the
other possible insurrectionsthat have happened.
Did you see that while you werecreating the movie?
Chris Everett (25:57):
I guess Omar Johnson.
He has a great segment of scenein Women to no Fire talking
about propaganda and it wascrazy when he said it because we
felt his scene that was like2012 when he said that and
people could still see thatscene that he did and still can
see what's happening today.
It was like he was foretellingit In a sense.
(26:19):
We almost didn't even get thatpart of the documentary.
We were actually wrapping upand I said, let me ask you this
one last question so that was aquestion actually, wow About
propaganda.
He did it in one take, man.
It was excellent.
But yeah, he kind of eloquentlysays it, man Just how this
propaganda can really change alot of things, good and bad and
(26:43):
we saw that even with January 6,a few years ago how, if you
rally and just keep throwingstuff out there and out there
and you pretty much let peoplejust run wild with it, there can
be some consequences and youcan't rally it.
And that's what happened with1898.
It got out of control and theycouldn't pull it back and they
(27:04):
just had to let the people justdo what they had to do.
And so you saw that happen inJanuary 6, where it was just too
late, it was too out of control, they couldn't put the top back
on it and it was because of allof that stuff they were spewing
out there the hate, the allthis stuff that was happening
and people just letting looseman and it was just too late.
Scott (27:22):
Yeah, I still can't get over the fact that the state
said sorry, whatever, but nobodyrallied the troops, literally
or figuratively, and said let'sgo down and get Wilmington some
help, let's go down and getthese other towns in North
Carolina some help.
And then I read a quote.
They asked President McKinleyabout it and McKinley said well,
I haven't heard anything aboutit from the governor, so I think
we're good.
Chris Everett (27:41):
Right, and there was a lot of things, man,
because one see, the people thatdid the massacre of 1898, they
made sure not to remove certainpeople where the federal
government could actuallyintervene, you know what I'm
saying?
So they didn't remove certainpeople that had direct ties to
the federal government.
So they were very smart in whenthey did this.
(28:01):
Then also, you've got torealize, man, we just got out of
a civil war like 30 years ago,and that pretty much bankrupt
this country.
If the federal government wouldhave tried to intervene again,
we probably would have hadanother civil war in our hands
and they weren't going to try togo bankrupt twice with black
people.
They just weren't going to dothat.
And so they just said you knowwhat?
(28:22):
It's just black people.
We just let the states handlethis very situation themselves.
They might really do anythingto federal government employees
or anything like that.
So it is what it is.
The states will handle it.
Let it be a state thing.
We're not trying to get intothis whole civil war business
again.
Scott (28:40):
Yeah, I guess it definitely left some scars on
some people and especially thosepeople that were kind of pissed
off that they lost Right.
Exactly A major theme of thepropaganda and the
insurrectionists was voterdisenfranchisement Really trying
to push the black voter down.
Women obviously weren't votingblack or white at that time.
(29:01):
So what they were trying to dois disenfranchise, and they did
so with literacy concerns, theydid it with gerrymandering and
redistricting, and you see thata lot today still too, and it's
kind of crazy how history kindof repeats itself and lends to
more and more upheaval and you'dwish that maybe they'd catch on
(29:22):
and maybe read a history bookonce in a while, right, Right.
Chris Everett (29:26):
And that's wondering why I did the film was
to show that, hey, we areseeing some of the same things,
and that's why we need to learnabout history, because we like
just some of the things you weretalking about gerrymandering
and things like that.
When you look at history, it'slike hold on, man.
This is the same playbook asthey've used before.
Now he's tweaked it a littlebit, but there's still some of
(29:46):
the same tricks of the trade,and so that's why we need to
study history, and that's one ofthe reasons why I did the film
that, hey, we're not a perfectsociety.
Some things we did right andsome a lot of things we did
wrong, and so this is kind ofshowing that.
And let's go back and say holdon, where do we mess up at,
especially with this wholevoting thing?
Let's go ahead and reallyfigure out a way to make this
(30:09):
thing fair and balanced foreveryone.
Every US citizen has the rightto vote, period.
Let's just stop playing allthese different games and
restructuring things andchanging the rules around the
down the road.
So that's like I said.
That's one of the reasons why Imade this film.
For that exact reason.
Scott (30:26):
So we discussed part one.
What is part two going toreally encompass?
Chris Everett (30:31):
Well, you, know, the first one is all history.
You know what I'm saying wereally talk about.
You know the Civil War.
You know what was Wilmingtonlike before, 1898, 1898, and a
little bit after.
So you know we give you thewhole history lesson in the
first one.
And so I felt like you know, Idon't want to give another
history lesson because you haveit in the first film, yeah, and
(30:51):
then you got other books outhere as well that you can check
out.
I want to give you somethingthat's right now tangible, that
you can actually see andactually be a part of the change
that's happening.
You know, we can't go back 100years and change that, but we
can change what's happeningright now.
And so I wanted to do a parttwo that's going to really
galvanize people to really getactive right now and to do
(31:13):
something, and so it's reallyshowing Wilmington and a whole
new light.
So we document the city ofWilmington from 2020 to 2022 and
the change that was happening.
So, like we were talking aboutearlier, the pandemic, the
global pandemic that washappening murder of George Floyd
, the young people that startedprotesting in front of City Hall
(31:33):
, other people in the communityyou know that's really trying to
do certain things, like youhave this organization called
Genesis Block.
They came out during this timeof really trying to rebuild the
Black middle class, you know,through business and
entrepreneurship.
You have people like SajraKarasin, who launched his
Wilmington and Keller BlackHistory Tour bus at the time as
(31:54):
well.
You have folks like CicotoHouse who are doing things on
the grassroots level that aretrying to tackle health and
wellness in the Black communityand also violence prevention as
well, and so we're just showingthe different stages of change
that's happening in the Blackcommunity in Wilmington during
this two year period.
And so I said you know what Iwant to focus on that, because
(32:17):
you find out that a lot of thesefolks were inspired by the
first film, you know as well,and so the film actually
inspired them to do what they'redoing.
And so I said you know what,let me really highlight that,
let me highlight these folks,because a lot of times these are
the folks that rarely gettalked about or highlighted out
here.
And I said you know what?
I think this is a good way toclose out.
There won't be any moreWilmington fires after this.
(32:40):
This would be it for me andWilmington history.
So this is a good way for me toclose it out and close it out
strong.
It's really a call to actionfor the community today to get
active and really change thecity of Wilmington and bring it
back to what it used to be.
It's awesome.
Scott (32:57):
Yeah, you mentioned that this will be your last chapter
with Wilmington Fire.
Just give us a chance to talk alittle bit about your
grandmaster movie.
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Everett (33:05):
Yeah, grandmaster , that's the film actually
started after the firstWilmington on fire.
So I've been filming that for agood six years now.
A couple years got delayedbecause of COVID, yeah.
But that film is very specialbecause, you know, it's another
side of Black history we'regoing to talk about and those
are stories we like to do.
Like you know, people weren'ttalking about 1898.
(33:26):
You did a film on it.
People aren't talking about theAfrican American presence in
martial arts.
We're doing a film on it.
And so Vic Molo was a martialarts pioneer in the 60s, one of
the first professional Blackkarate champions in the United
States.
He's 80 years old now, has beendoing martial arts for over 70
years, wow.
And so he's a 10th degree Blackbelt.
(33:47):
He's fought people like ChuckNorris.
He did a speed competitionagainst Bruce Lee in 1967.
He actually trained to jumpkarate back in the 80s.
Really, you know as well, he'sdone it all.
He's done it all in martialarts, and his teacher was Robert
Treas, and Robert Treas isactually known as the father of
American karate.
He actually brought karate tothe United States right after
(34:08):
World War II, and so he gotinvolved with his organization
in the 60s and became one of hischief instructors as well
during that time.
So he has that direct lineageof Robert Treas where Robert
Treas got his training while hewas stationed in Okinawa back in
World War II.
So he comes from that directline, that direct lineage from
(34:30):
Okinawa.
You know karate and so you knowthat's where he's from.
He still teaches in that oldschool type of way.
He's still teaching in this day.
He's still teaching man, stillteaching this day.
Man Still teaching this day.
And so the film is just not allabout his history and legacy,
but also how he's been workingwith these two young,
up-and-coming martial artists aswell, his relationship with
them but trying to pass thatknowledge down and keep that
(34:52):
knowledge and that legacy downthrough them.
And so it's to me, man, I thinkit's some of my best work to
date, and actually that's goingto be we're going to have that
ready by the spring, okay, andso that was coming first.
And then Wilmington on fire,two after that.
And so I'm very, I'm veryexcited about that.
He actually lives in Delco man.
He's right across the grid, oh,that's awesome, about 30
minutes from here, yeah.
And so I'm very excited aboutthat.
(35:14):
And that project also led me tolaunch my first festival, which
we did this past October here inWilmington.
So I started a festival.
It's a martial arts, hip hop,an anime festival called Three
Chambers Fest.
Yeah, and we just did it thispast October 13th and 14th in
Wilmington.
It was great, man.
We had a hip hop concert, wehad a Tai Chi class, we have
(35:36):
this interactive film screeningseries called Can I Kick it,
where we take a classic actionfilm or martial arts movie and
we rummage to score live usinghip hop and elements like that,
so you're watching the film in awhole new way and with whole
new music.
And so we rummage to score tothe curl of the Brandon Lee film
, and so we're actually workingon you know next year's dates
(35:57):
and we're going to do it againnext year.
So that's kind of that kind ofgoes hand in hand with the
Grandmaster Project.
Because I had to figure out away to build an audience,
because everyone just wanted meto do Wilmington on fire too and
yeah, and didn't care about themartial arts project I was
doing.
So I had to figure out a way tobuild some audience, build some
interest, and so doing thosetypes of projects on the side
kind of helped build up theanticipation for the Grandmaster
(36:19):
Project.
Scott (36:19):
Yeah, I saw some of the Can I Kick it stuff online and
it was.
It was awesome.
Thanks, martial artists likeall choreographed, you know hip
hop and then some of the otheryou know other films.
It was really, really cool.
Thank you, very cool stuff.
Well, I can't thank you enoughfor coming on today.
This has been an awesomeconversation about a very
serious topic that just needs toget out.
(36:41):
We've got to get this word out.
People have to understand whathappened.
You know, there's so manypeople out there and this is not
a joke, I swear to God thereare so many people out there
that know about Black WallStreet solely because of the HBO
show the Watchman.
Chris Everett (36:53):
You're right.
You're right, man, and I knowpeople told me, I know people
have told me, when I've donescreenings of Women's Tunnel
Fire, they say, Chris, you needto probably stop doing
documentaries and make yourfilms like Watchman or Lovecraft
Country.
I can't do it, I can't do it.
I got to stay, maybe down theroad, maybe a hundred years from
now, once we built out afoundation of real history, then
(37:17):
we can explore those type ofmeetings.
But for right now I'm going tocontinue to do it like this.
And also I also recently boughtthe rights to the Thomas, the
story of Thomas Day, which we'regoing to be doing right after
we knock out Wilmington on firetoo, and Grandmaster.
So Thomas Day is a veryinteresting individual.
He actually revolutionized thefurniture industry Okay, really
(37:39):
in the United States, and he wasbased in North Carolina, but
when he was doing he's AfricanAmerican, but he was a free
person of color, free blackperson during the time of
slavery, right, he was doingthis.
And also he was an abolitionist, involved in the abolitionist
movement as well.
And so Thomas Day, furniture, apiece of furniture man, it's
like having a Bosch yacht.
So I think the starting pricefor his firms is like 300,000,.
(38:00):
You know, low ball, low price,300,000.
And so we're going to be I'mgoing to be doing his project
next, starting next year, andthat's actually probably going
to be my last documentary period.
I'm going to probably close itout, yeah, cause I'm thinking
about doing some martial artsstuff, like some narrative
fiction, some things like this.
I want to grow as an artist andexplore more stuff, with three
(38:22):
chambers fest and stuff likethat.
So you know, the Thomas Daystory I think is very different.
A lot of people know about himand his contribution to history
and just the whole furnitureindustry in general, and so I
think that's a good one.
Just to close it out on, youknow.
Scott (38:38):
Yeah, it sounds cool.
I'm looking forward to it.
Again, thank you so much forthis.
I'm glad we got a chance to sitdown, especially before the
125th anniversary just meant alot to me to get a lot of events
happening.
Chris Everett (38:48):
I got a screening Thursday.
Actually at dreams, thursdaywas never been my six o'clock.
Scott (38:55):
And you do still do screenings like all over, or
yeah, all the time.
Chris Everett (38:59):
I just I just came back from.
I was down in Austin, texas,this past Thursday at Afro Tech.
Afro Tech is a huge black techconference and so we I showed
her to me to the fire there, sowe did a screening, I did a talk
there about the film and so Istill, I still screened man.
It's eight years and we still,we still run the road, we still
(39:20):
screen in Wilmington, all ofthem of Kana and everywhere else
.
You know, people still requestus for screenings.
Scott (39:27):
Got some friends of teachers out there.
Everybody get in touch withChris and try to set up a
screening.
This is one of the greatestdocumentaries I've honestly ever
seen.
It was very eye-opening andjust sad and scary as hell All
in the same breath.
How can people get in touch andfollow you and Wilmington on
fire?
Chris Everett (39:46):
Go, go to Wilmington1898.com.
Wilmington1898.com, we'repretty much revamping the site
Cause, like I said, you knowwe're Wilmington on fire.
So I'm trying to create a sitewhere it's not only a site for
both of the films but it's an1898 resource center.
You know what I'm saying.
So we're going to, we'rebuilding it out now, we're
revamping it now, so we're goingto have different, you know
(40:08):
ways you can get different books, articles, research tools,
awesome study guides where youcan watch the first film.
You know when events that wehave all type of stuff.
So we're really building thatWilmington1898.com into the
ultimate destination of.
If you want to know about whathappened in 1898, go right here
(40:28):
to this site where we got thefilms, we got books, we got
research guides, everything.
And so Wilmington1898, you gothere, got everything, got all
the social media pages forWilmington on fire, you know, et
cetera.
Also, if you want to know aboutThree Chambers, three
Chamberscom, that has everything.
(40:49):
We're revamping that site now.
We're putting up the newpictures and videos of the
inaugural festival up there, butit has all our social media
tags on there as well.
So definitely check out thoseand also with Grandmaster GM
documentary, gm documentary onall social media platforms to
stay up to date with thatproject as well.
Scott (41:09):
I'll put all this in the show notes too, for everybody.
So what's the best way thatpeople can view the film now?
I found it online on Quelle.
Yeah, yeah so right now.
Chris Everett (41:18):
We got it just on Quelle TV.
I did that because Amazon isrobbing people, so so I'm also
Quelle TV.
You know it's a black onstreaming service.
I wanted to help her out.
That's who actually brought meto Afro Tech to show the film
this past weekend.
So I want people to subscribeto this, this platform, because
he needs our help.
And I said you know, let memake Women's Turn on Fire
(41:41):
exclusive on here for a while.
Awesome, where this is the onlyplace you can see.
Because I want people tosupport, I'm going to subscribe
to Quelle TV.
It's only $5.99 a month.
They have some excellentprograms on there excellent
films, documentaries, shorts,features, any moment they have
it.
So my film is on there as well,so check it out, quelle TV.
Scott (42:04):
I've been messing around looking at it and I've watched
four documentaries.
That's good.
My daughter hates me.
She's seven and she's likeDaddy.
This is boring, but yeah, it'swell worth it.
There's some awesomedocumentaries that I've seen
already that I'm looking forwardto keep scrolling through and
checking everything else outAgain.
Chris, thank you so much fordoing this.
(42:24):
Hopefully we get a goodresponse, get more word out.
I wish you the best of luck.
I want to keep in touch.
We follow each other,definitely, definitely.
Chris Everett (42:34):
I may be doing a and I've seen it in a certain
way.
We're going to probably lock itdown next week or so, but we're
going to be doing a rough cutscreening of the Grand Master
documentary in February at ourK-5 Community College.
It'll be free and open to thepublic.
Grand Master more will be thereas well, so I'll keep you
posted on that.
So you definitely should comethrough.
Scott (42:51):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
I'll definitely be there.
I'm a volunteer in Wilmington.
I'm in Wilmington.
This is the party town.
Chris Everett (42:58):
Cool, cool, cool Excellent.
Scott (43:00):
When did you realize that Wilmington on Fire was going to
be so big and that you had madesomething so important?
Chris Everett (43:07):
I think, two times it happened to me.
I think the first one was whenwe premiered the film at the
Kukula West Film FestivalNovember 2015.
Scott (43:15):
Kukula West is a big deal , man.
Chris Everett (43:17):
It's a big festival here in Wilmington.
They do it every year, and sowhen we premiered there, we
actually broke their attendancerecord and we still have the
record to this day for mostattendance screening ever.
We showed it at Thirland Hall,so it was very symbolic showing
it there, because that's wherethe conspirators of the massacre
met and plotted and planned,and so I wanted to have it there
(43:39):
, and so 600 people packed in,man.
And then also we had a line, await line, that was around the
block of people that couldn'tget in.
So that was the first time Isaid you know what?
Because I didn't know what toexpect, man.
I said, man, maybe a couplehundred people, I ain't nobody.
You know what I'm saying, I'mnot.
You know Spike Lee and nobodylike that.
So we'll come see my film.
(43:59):
And so that was the first timethat I knew I had something.
And then also the second timewas the summer of 2019, where
they actually had the firstcongressional hearing on
reparations, and it was big.
It was all in MSNBC, all on theinternet, cnn and Dr Julian
Malvo.
I was at home on my lunch breaklooking at it, streaming it on
(44:20):
my computer while I was onFacebook and Dr Julian Malvo was
a huge fan of the film andshe's seen the film before.
She actually gave me a shoutout.
She urged people to watchWilmington on Fire and it's
required viewing and all of that.
And so soon as that happened, Ihad like a thousand comments,
people hitting me, tagging me onFacebook Because I was always
(44:40):
watching this, because it wasthe first ever hearing on
reparations and we were the onlyfilm to mention during that
whole thing.
And they didn't mention SpikeLee, they didn't mention
Tarantino and those people.
They mentioned Chris Everett.
They were two moments Nobody.
Scott (44:57):
It was Chris Everett man there was no John Singleton, it
was just Chris Everett and mylunch break.
So cool man.
Congratulations with everything.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
Folks check all of Chris'sstuff out.
Wilmington on Fire is, I can'tsay enough, but it's such a
great documentary.
Check it out and follow him onsocial media.
Thank you so much, chris.
Like I said, I wish you thebest with everything.
(45:18):
Thank you.
Chris Everett is the Wilmington based film producer
and director of theaward-winning documentary film
Wilmington on Fire, as well asthe documentary Grandmaster the
Vic Moore Story.
He's the founder and presidentof Speller Street Films and is
the artistic director for theSouthern Documentary Fund.
He's currently working on hisfollow-up film, wilmington on
Fire Part 2.
I'm very honored to have himhere.
Chris Everett, welcome toCarney Saves the World.
Chris Everett (00:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll do it one day.
Scott (00:24):
Thank you again for coming on.
We got some important stuff totalk about.
This is a very important topic.
I was not aware of theWilmington riots massacre.
I was not aware of that at alland I'm kind of shocked by it
because I have a history degreeFrom up north.
You know I could see if theyweren't teaching it down south.
Right, you know, with the lostcause deal that adjusted the
(00:45):
education system down here for awhile, but up north we're not
learning about this, right.
Right, could you just tell us alittle bit about it from what
you've researched?
Chris Everett (00:52):
Well you know, the Wilmington massacre of 1898
is pretty much considered one ofthe only examples of an actual
overthrow of an existinggovernment here in the United
States of America.
This happened on November 10th1898 in the beautiful city of
Wilmington, North Carolina.
You know, what makes it reallyunique is that back then this is
over 30 years after slaverywhere you had this thing that
(01:16):
was going on in several statesin the South, a thing called
fusion.
And so this fusionist movement,kind of combined black
Republicans, white populists,kind of coming together and
saying you know, let's fusetogether, let's try to become a
political power to get our folksin office, and so you saw a lot
of that happening in Wilmington.
But you also had a whitesupremacist movement that was
(01:38):
just not only in Wilmington butthroughout the state of North
Carolina that really wanted toreverse all of these changes
that was happening in the stateof North Carolina and
specifically in Wilmington.
And that's how we got the whole1898 massacre that happened.
And a lot of people might befamiliar with Tulsa, rosewood,
those things.
But Wilmington was before bothof those racial massacres that
(01:59):
happened here in the UnitedStates and, like you were saying
earlier, a lot of us stilldon't know about it.
A lot of us didn't know aboutit until, I would say, you know
Wilmington on fire really comingout and really exposing a lot
of this stuff.
Scott (02:11):
So how did you pick that as your?
Chris Everett (02:13):
Well, it wasn't my first one.
It was my first completed one,and so it was kind of like it's
going to answer your question atthe same time.
So my very first documentarywas about where I'm from.
I'm from Lawnburg, northCarolina, scotland County.
Lawnburg is about.
If you go across the bridge inWilmington, the Cape River
Bridge, you know it's right on74.
(02:33):
It takes you right throughLawnburg.
Man, lawnburg is like thehalfway mark from here to
Charlotte, and so it's about anhour and a half from here, and
so I grew up there.
I've been involved in history mywhole life.
I grew up right around thequarter from the Lawnburg
Institute.
It's a historical blackboardingin day.
School started in 1904, beenthe same family for three
generations.
(02:54):
My grandfather went to schoolthere, my godfather he went to
school there.
He was the alumni president foryears.
You know I collected all theseold archival stuff for them over
the years and so that was goingto be my first film.
That was my first film aboutthe Lawnburg Institute, but I
totally failed at it and neverfinished it.
All I did was really collect alot of archival materials, a lot
(03:15):
of art or histories, and so Inever put it together.
But recently I was hired toactually use a lot of my
archival material for a bookthat's coming out about the
Lawnburg Institute.
It's actually coming out thisFebruary, coming up Great and so
I supplied all the photos forthat book.
But with the documentary film Ididn't get the complete, I
didn't get to finish it, butwhile doing that I found out a
(03:36):
lot of stuff about the 1898massacre.
And when I tell people a lot oftimes people think that the
Wilmington massacre is justrestricted to Wilmington and
that's not true at all.
This was a statewide movementof white supremacy.
Even where I'm from, there wasinvolvement from people in my
town.
I grew up in Lawnburg.
So, for example, when you watchWilmington on fire and you see
these pictures where we talkabout the red shirts and stuff
(03:58):
like that, you know the redshirts were, you know, similar
to the Klu Klux Klan.
They were white supremaciststype of organization really
tried to restrict AfricanAmericans from voting on in
businesses where they didn'twear any sheets.
They came out and broughtdaylight.
So all the pictures that yousee of red shirts in my film,
those aren't red shirts fromWilmington.
All those pictures are redshirts from Lawnburg.
(04:19):
Okay, then finding out that alot of red shirts that
participated in the Wilmingtonmassacre of 1898, a lot of them
came from Lawnburg as well, andso that sparked my interest,
when I didn't get to finish thatfilm, I said you know what?
Let me look more into thisWilmington 1898 story Because I
see how it connects to Lawnburg.
And then also I started doingsome research, found out that
(04:39):
Lawnburg really was thekickstart to that whole election
of 1898, that white supremacycampaign of 1898, they
kickstarted that campaign inLawnburg with a huge rally in
May of 1898.
That really kickstarted therest of that year for this whole
white supremacy push which ledto the 1898 massacre.
(04:59):
So I said you know what?
Let me go ahead and see if Ican tell you this story because
it really relates to where I'mfrom.
Scott (05:06):
Yeah.
Chris Everett (05:06):
And there's a lot to that, so let me go ahead and
tackle this.
I didn't see that no one wasdoing a documentary on it, and
so you know what we're going togive it a shot in the rest of
history.
Scott (05:15):
Folks that are listening, go watch this film.
It's amazing.
I watched it a second timeyesterday.
It's so informative, it's sowell done and it is just a
really crazy time.
I mean you can't even describeit until you see the film and
you see what happened and howthe only coup d'etat in the
United States to ever besuccessful and it happened here
(05:36):
in Wilmington they removed theentire government and started
new, and it was all white people.
It's a pretty crazy, crazystory.
Chris Everett (05:43):
And you know, in the cities never really fully
recovered from that event.
Now the the black populationhas steadily been on the decline
.
It's gotten up a little bit.
I was sort of the past coupleof years To me I think that was
because of COVID where peoplecould kind of move around with
their jobs, with their salariesand kind of just move wherever
they wanted to.
So you kind of started to seethat black population kind of go
(06:07):
up.
Even I moved here during thepandemic, so I'm included in
that percentage as well becausewe could actually move around
with some of our jobs.
Now A lot of jobs went remote,some people started their own
businesses so they couldactually move around a little
bit.
But it still hasn't grown to alevel of what it was prior to
the 1998 massacre.
But a lot of people are tryingto change that.
Scott (06:29):
So we moved down here in 2017.
And it was right around thetime that there was just this
big push to rename Humacrae Park.
And, for those listening,humacrae Park is probably the
largest park in Wilmington.
The land was donated by thiswe'll just say, quote unquote,
rich guy Humacrae.
We can talk about how he gothis money, but he donated all
(06:51):
this land for a park.
And then, when you startdigging into it, the park's main
purpose was solely for whitepeople.
It was never to be used byanyone else besides white people
.
But yet in 2016, this guy'sdamn name was still on the
billboard.
And I remember getting indebates with people about it and
I'm like that's just wrong andthe story like it's just a bit
(07:12):
shitty and it's wrong, andpeople couldn't understand.
I would have these arguments,chris, and people would come
back to me and they'd be like,well, we didn't do it.
Well, it's not.
That's at the point.
So since then it's obviously ithas been changed to Longleaf
Park, which but that kind of gotme thinking well, what else is
going on in Wilmington?
And then I started hearing thestories and your documentary had
(07:32):
come out, but I hadn't gotten achance to see it back then.
You know, brought a lot oflight to a very, very dark time
in Wilmington, and the US haspassed.
Chris Everett (07:38):
For sure.
And then we saw a lot of thisget exposed, especially, you
know, during the beginning ofthe pandemic with the murder of
George Floyd.
You saw a lot of investment,the name change kind of happened
with Humacrae Park as well, andthen you started seeing a lot
of the monuments getting takendown really across America.
But specifically, you knowwe're talking about Wilmington.
You know we started to see alot of that happen throughout
(08:00):
the city as well.
People have been telling peopleto change these names for years
.
But it wasn't until, you know,when George Floyd was murdered
and during the pandemic, youknow, we started to finally see
some movement with those things.
Scott (08:11):
Yeah, so when you start putting this film together,
obviously there's a fundraisingcomponent to it.
Yeah, did you get pushback?
Did people not want to attachmoney to something that was
possibly a controversial topic?
Chris Everett (08:23):
It was mostly because, you know, it was my
first film and also and peopledon't realize this and now a lot
of people are making films on1898 now got shorts out there,
other type of features, but whenI was putting this together no
one was doing it.
No one was making it, wasn'teven trying to do a film on 1898
.
I didn't get the support or thefunding because of that.
(08:44):
It was just that I guess justno one cared about even talking
about the subject.
You know what I'm saying.
It really wasn't a hot topiclike that at the time.
You know, no one was reallytrying to do anything on it
besides us.
You know my team and stuff likethat.
So we kind of went under radarwith this thing.
We knew that, okay, this isn'ta popular topic at the time, we
probably won't get the funding,but let's figure out a way to
(09:06):
get it going.
Yeah, and so it was, like youknow, several different ways.
I use my own money a lot oftimes.
A lot of times people work forreally free or cheap a lot of
times.
And then also, I did a coupleof crowd funding campaigns and
then, for post-production, outthe blue, an NBA player actually
gave me the remainingpost-production funds.
To finish up, post-production,david West.
He's retired and, as a retiredNBA player, oh, yeah, yeah, but
(09:28):
he actually gave me thefinishing funds on the finish
andhe heard about me through like a
blog, this, mark Anthony Neal,who has a blog called Left to
Black.
He's a history professor atDuke University and he's a huge
supporter of what I've beendoing over the years and he so.
He wrote a couple of storiesabout me doing this film and
David frequents his blog.
And he reached out.
He said man, is this film bad?
(09:49):
I want to get a copy of it, Iwant to see it.
And Mark told him, said man,it's not done.
I think he's still trying toget some money together for
post-production.
And then Mark hits me up.
He said hey, david West and hispeople hit me up.
Man, they're interested in moreand more about your project and
it could be a way for you tofinish it.
And so that's how we made thatconnection.
Man, it's really David West andlooking at Mark's blog.
(10:10):
And then Mark hitting me up,letting me know that hey, david
is interesting in partneringwith you Get this thing done.
And that's how we got it done,man, that's awesome and the rest
is history.
And then.
So now getting Women's no Fire2 funded was a whole lot easier,
because doing getting the firstone done, getting on the road,
getting all these accolades anddoing all this stuff over the
past five, six years with thatfilm that kind of let people
(10:33):
like you know, chris, I see youwant to do a part two.
We're going to get behind thisnow, and so funding things went
better and easier with Women'sno Fire 2 than it was with the
first one, but I wouldn't changeit for the world, man, I
learned so much during thegrassroots way.
Scott (10:47):
Yeah, I can't imagine how much you've learned over that
course of the whole project.
One of the other people that iscoming on as, I think, an
executive producer for part twois Hilary Burton.
Yeah yeah, I want you to hear.
Chris Everett (10:57):
Yeah.
Scott (10:58):
Yeah, I've got a lady friend that are that are one
tree hill freaks and like I livedown here and they're like do
you drive by where they?
Yeah, I drive by there, butyeah, so she's going to be
helping out.
Chris Everett (11:07):
Huh oh yeah, yeah , she's been.
She's been a huge help andsupport man.
Like I said, women's no Fire 2has gotten a lot of support.
But the thing is, I connectedwith Hilary.
It was during the pandemic, youknow, when a lot of stuff was
happening.
You know, in our country a lotof stuff was happening here in
Women's 10.
I know I think someone sentHilary the video, sent the
Women's no Fire copy of it, andshe checked it out and she loved
(11:28):
it and she's like, oh man, Inever knew about this history
and I lived in Women's for 10years.
And so she she went on IG, onInstagram, and did a video and
gave me a shout out and so I sawall these people started
following me.
That's awesome.
I like, oh, these peoplefollowing me for that scroll now
.
That's why it's Hilary Burtontagging me and then.
So I looked at the video.
So I hit it up in the DM and say, hey, thank you again for the
(11:50):
support.
I really appreciate you likingthe film and liking what I do.
And she hit me back and then wejust started texting each other
and you know we talked on thephone and she said, chris, I
like what you're doing.
And I tell her that's a hey,I'm about to start production on
part two.
And she was like hey, if youneed anything, let me know.
I really love what you're doing.
With the first one, she broughtme on our IG live I'm chat talk
(12:10):
that she brought us.
From time to time they're likea million viewers, wow, you know
.
So I was able to tap into heraudience.
You know that one tree hereaudience and stuff like that and
so she wanted to get involvedwith part two, man, and so I say
let's do it.
And so she's been a hugesupport over the past couple of
years, and just not only withwomen's no fire, but no other
questions that I might haveabout doing film and trying to
(12:30):
grow my career she's just beenmore than helpful.
Scott (12:33):
She's married to.
Chris Everett (12:34):
Oh, jesse, jesse, Morgan, yeah, from the walking
dead, jesse, that is husband.
Scott (12:37):
So this isn't like an angle to try to get a zombie
role, is it no?
Chris Everett (12:42):
not, at all Not at all.
Scott (12:43):
Not at all.
I'm a dot guy, so that'sfantastic.
I mean to know that you'regoing into part two with.
You know, all that weight offyour shoulders that you had
going into part one is just gotto be, you know an amazing way
to start it off it is.
Chris Everett (12:55):
It is, you know it's good and bad pressure.
So the pressure of thinkingabout the funding aspect but the
other person was that you knowyou don't want to have like a
soft, most you know flop, youknow type of deal, you know,
because the first one did somuch man and really, you know,
led to a lot of change, a lot ofthe change that we're seeing in
North Carolina in Wilmington.
(13:16):
Really that film helped withthat and so that film is
probably going to go down is.
You know, even if I do some ofthe best films artistically and
everything, wilmington on Fireis probably always going to be
my number one film for everybody.
That's what everybody's goingto know me for, and so it's
going to be hard to top that.
But I think we're going to comeclose with it.
(13:37):
For part two, because westepped that game all the way up
, man.
We stepped it upproduction-wise, visually,
sound-wise and story-wise aswell.
So I just wanted to show, youknow, the growth as a filmmaker
and storyteller also with thisnext project.
Scott (13:50):
So part one goes up through 1898.
I forgot to mention.
One of the reasons why I wantedto sit down with you and have
this conversation is this comingFriday, november 10th, is the
125th anniversary of themassacre, so I really wanted to
put a lot of emphasis on thatand make sure that people will
honor those folks that losttheir lives and lost their
(14:10):
livelihoods during it.
So we go through 1898, correctme if I'm wrong.
You do touch up into the 1900election, which is kind of a
kind of a shady thing, I guess.
Basically 1898, they kickedeverybody out and then the white
people all ran again for thesame offices that they stole and
mysteriously they won,amazingly.
Chris Everett (14:31):
And all over the state.
You know as well.
You know what I'm saying.
It was a, it was a cool.
It was a cool they taught allover the state of North Carolina
.
Yeah, you know Wilmington.
You know they didn't want towait for the actual local
elections to happen.
So they just say, you know,let's just take over the
government locally.
Yeah, like you said, and thenwhen 1900 came around, let's
just revote ourselves back inhere again.
Scott (14:52):
Yeah, one of the aspects was obviously there was a
massacre and the number of folkskilled fluctuates, whether you
look at it anywhere from what?
60 to maybe a thousand.
Chris Everett (15:02):
Possibly.
You know, we don't know thereal game number.
We know that some people werekilled and a lot of people left
the city or run out.
Scott (15:10):
There were specific trains.
I mean, this is a crazy concept.
They brought trains in to truckpeople out of the city.
Just get your stuff and get out, and that's.
That's insane.
But you know, one of the statsthat I was looking at it was,
you know, 1898 or the census of1897, I think it said it was
about 60, 40 black to whiteratio and then two years later
(15:31):
it was 75, 25, white to black.
And that's another crazy stat.
Chris Everett (15:36):
And it's still about that way now.
So I think it's about, I think,black population maybe 19
percent.
Yeah, it used to be a littlethan that.
It used to be about 15 to 17.
Like I said, the past couple ofyears it's kind of went up a
little bit, but it's like at 19,around 19 percent now.
So oh, really OK.
Scott (15:52):
You know so many people lost their businesses, their
jobs, their livelihoods, theirlives, obviously, right.
One of those people was AlexManley.
Could you tell us a little bitabout him and what your opinion
is on him?
Yeah, because he did somethingreally brave and revolutionary
back then, right, right, I reada lot of articles that say that
maybe it wasn't the best idea atthe time, but I wanted to hear
what your thoughts were.
Chris Everett (16:12):
Well, you know Alex Manley.
You know he he's pretty muchknown for.
You know, when people pull up aresearch 1898, they see the
burned down building where youhave the whole bunch of the
right mob standing in front ofthis burned down building.
That's his newspaper, pressthat was burned down.
You know he was heavilyinvolved in the Republican Party
(16:33):
at the time.
You know, at that time theRepublican Party was very
different than how we view ittoday, but he was heavily
involved in that.
He was a business owner inWilmington at the time had the
Wilmington Daily Record, whichis a daily, you know, black
owned newspaper.
But they pretty much kind ofused a controversial article
that he added in his paper toreally, you know, rally up the
(16:55):
white supremacists in thatmovement to really kickstart and
just upstart the 1898 massacre.
Now I've heard other storiesthat he didn't actually write
the article, you know.
So, yeah, there has been somestories about that that he
didn't even write the articlebut it came through his paper.
So he has to take the blame forit because he is, he was the
main editor and owner of it andso how did they get through his
(17:17):
credit through the cracks?
I don't know, but it is what itis.
You know he was very vocalabout racism at the time as well
and you know he was.
They were actually going to tryto kill him but he was able to
get out of Wilmington before,you know, the massacre happened
and before they burnt down hisnewspaper building him and his
(17:38):
brother, frank Manley, who theyran and operated the Wilmington
Daily Record in Wilmington, andhe left and never came back to
Wilmington, you know, ever again.
He lived in Philadelphia to theday he died.
Scott (17:50):
I was listening to a podcast with Leray Umphlep, the
historian in North Carolina, andshe was saying she's into film.
The person asked her had AlexManley not wrote that article,
would this have still happened?
And she said yes, it would have.
Chris Everett (18:05):
Yes, which is crazy, because it is just
something they used.
They were going to usesomething that was just
something that was convenient atthe time.
Because, like I said, that'swhat really sparked my interest
in this, because even inLawnberg, you know, they did
certain things that were similarto what happened in Wilmington.
For example, people realizethat Lawnberg's part of Scotland
(18:25):
County, right, but prior to1898, scotland County didn't
exist, lawnberg's part ofRichmond County.
Then you look at the records,the same type of fusion, this
type of stuff was happening inLawnberg, and so the white
supremacists, out of things theywanted to separate, then they
were trying to create ScotlandCounty back then, but they
couldn't do it.
And so when the massacrehappens and all this stuff
(18:46):
starts shifting throughout NorthCarolina and politics, they
then were able to break awayfrom Richmond County and start
Scotland County, which theywanted to do to kind of, you
know, have their own democraticrule, white supremacy type rule.
So, you see, you saw that typeof stuff happening all the time.
Man, where this type of stuffwas going to happen, yeah, they
just, you know, used certainthings that were convenient at
(19:08):
the time to really justify, youknow doing what they were trying
to do.
Scott (19:13):
When we say massacre, it was a massacre.
One of the things that KenChapfield in your movie talks
about is the Gatling gun thatwas used.
And then I did some moreresearch on it and it was like
25 people that were blown awayby a Gatling gun for no reason
other than the color of theirskin and they were in that
particular spot at that time,right.
Chris Everett (19:32):
Right, oh, yeah, it was very.
It was very bloody.
I was very bloody, like I said.
I think that's why theWilmington massacre really is at
the top of people list becauseof the bloodshed that happened
during the time, like you said,with the Gatling gun and with
the other artillery that wasused as well during this time.
Yeah, it was definitely amassacre, man, that the city of
(19:55):
Wilmington, the state of NorthCarolina or the federal
government really hasn't helpedrepair at all their damage.
Scott (20:01):
Yeah, they've done absolutely nothing.
I think the state may haveapologized at one point, or
should we?
Yeah, that's it, that's it.
You know nothing from areparation standpoint or any
compensation for land lost,lives lost.
Anything has been given up.
Chris Everett (20:16):
Now back in, back in 2000, and we're going to
talk about this in part too thatback in 2006,.
So 2006 and 2008,.
Right, so when LaRae comes outwith a report that helped push
the series of bills that wascreated by a few, you know,
legislator folks, and so thesebills are still, you can still
look these bills up.
I got a copy of my sentiment toyou and so this is back.
(20:38):
These bills happened back in2007, 2008.
And so it was a series ofreparations bills, not only that
pass now.
So one was to directlycompensate people like Dr Lauren
Manley, who's in my film FaithChaplin, you know, great grant.
So the compensate directdescendants that could prove
losses from the 18 idea ofMassacre.
(20:59):
That was one bill.
Another bill was to teach thishistory and implement this
history into K through 12 schoolcurriculum, you know I'm saying
.
Another one was to create atraveling museum.
To go all over the state, youknow, start collecting artifacts
, photos, documents to puttogether a traveling museum, to
start educating people about it,to create two black business
(21:22):
incubators in the north side andthen Castle Street area home
loans for black and minoritycitizens.
Also, to pay a productioncompany 500,000 to do what I did
a documentary as well.
So there's, a series of stuff,series of bills, a lot of stuff
I passed through man.
Wow, a lot of it, and you canstill look these bills up.
Scott (21:43):
It's about 10 of them you can still look them up now.
That's nuts.
The other thing is all thepeople that were part of it.
You know there was a group ofnine of them.
That's kind of started it allout.
These folks all lived prettyprosperous lives.
These white guys that took overand stole land and everything
else.
Chris Everett (22:00):
Oh yeah, for sure , for sure.
And that thing is man.
They all became big timephilanthropists.
So when you look at after 1898happens and you get towards more
of the 1900s and startinggetting to 1920 and 1930, you
see a lot of these guys' namespop up in buildings, certain
buildings and certainuniversities, Because, like I
(22:21):
said, they're big business guys.
But then they started gettinginto politics even more, they
started doing the philanthropything, they started donating to
certain universities andinstitutions and then so people
started memorializing thesefolks and then later on you find
out that they were heavilyinvolved in the 1898 massacre
and those type of things and wesaw that happen.
(22:43):
That exposed a lot.
Not only were women to the fire, but when the pandemic happened
, when people were talking aboutchanging some of these, these
building names and taking downsome of these statues, a lot of
that stuff started coming tolight.
Scott (22:54):
Yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
I was looking up some of themand I mean for the majority, it
seems that a lot of them havebeen pulled off.
The names have been pulled downand changed to more respectful
names, but there's still acouple of universities and it
was Clemson that still has twoor three buildings, and they're
just.
That's their gig.
They're not changing it.
And Duke was like that too.
Chris Everett (23:14):
Yeah, some places , man, they're not changing
nothing.
They say, you can say whatever,we're not doing it.
Yeah, obviously, south Carolinaman, they're worse than North
Carolina because the guy thatactually started the whole red
shirt concept was from SouthCarolina, ben Tillett.
Okay, he actually he's onrecord saying that the people in
North Carolina, when Manly didthat article, they said if that
(23:37):
in-bed Manly was down here, wewould have hung him a long time
ago.
Jesus, you know what I'm saying.
So, south Carolina man, theywere actually way worse than
North Carolina even during thattime.
And so I see why that placeslike Clemson and stuff like that
are kind of behind on thosethings.
Scott (23:54):
And then we have to talk about Rebecca Latimer, right,
right, probably one of the worsthuman beings.
I would thank you.
Chris Everett (24:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Rebecca Latimer felt she kindof moved this speech I think it
was called Women on the Farmjust talking about white men
need to hold up white supremacy,protect white womanhood, all
those things that really rallyup the troops and just ruffle up
the crowd.
And then, like say, alex Manlykind of read that and wanted to
(24:23):
write a rebuttal.
They said that he didn't writeit we never know but someone
wrote it, the rebuttal aboutwhat she said and that really
gave ammunition for this whole1898 campaign to come to life
and that eventually led to the1898 massacre.
Scott (24:42):
To the best of your knowledge, in the film they also
talk a lot about people andbodies and other possessions and
stuff just being thrown in theCape Fear River Right.
Black possessions,unfortunately black bodies just
thrown in the river.
To the best of your knowledge,has the river ever been dragged
for anything or have they evereven looked?
Chris Everett (25:01):
No one's ever done any of that.
I know a lot of people, I thinksince Women to no Fire, a lot
of people have asked that samequestion you have been asking.
I'm one of them one of themever but hopefully one day we
can make something like thathappen.
But for right now, no one'sever done anything like that at
all.
But I know that's somethingthat I would love to push for
(25:22):
and to figure out how toactually push for it.
Scott (25:25):
Yeah.
So there's a lot of propagandathat almost a year of propaganda
that went out before thisreally started to kick in, and
then it riled the crowd up somuch that they just couldn't
control themselves.
I mean there were gatling gunsand rifles and people being
beaten, and just you can'tignore the similarities between
1898 and January 6th.
They seem sort of connected.
(25:47):
It seems.
They gave blueprint, so tospeak, of that and maybe all the
other possible insurrectionsthat have happened.
Did you see that while you werecreating the movie?
Chris Everett (25:57):
I guess Omar Johnson.
He has a great segment of scenein Women to no Fire talking
about propaganda and it wascrazy when he said it because we
felt his scene that was like2012 when he said that and
people could still see thatscene that he did and still can
see what's happening today.
It was like he was foretellingit In a sense.
(26:19):
We almost didn't even get thatpart of the documentary.
We were actually wrapping upand I said, let me ask you this
one last question so that was aquestion actually, wow About
propaganda.
He did it in one take, man.
It was excellent.
But yeah, he kind of eloquentlysays it, man Just how this
propaganda can really change alot of things, good and bad and
(26:43):
we saw that even with January 6,a few years ago how, if you
rally and just keep throwingstuff out there and out there
and you pretty much let peoplejust run wild with it, there can
be some consequences and youcan't rally it.
And that's what happened with1898.
It got out of control and theycouldn't pull it back and they
(27:04):
just had to let the people justdo what they had to do.
And so you saw that happen inJanuary 6, where it was just too
late, it was too out of control, they couldn't put the top back
on it and it was because of allof that stuff they were spewing
out there the hate, the allthis stuff that was happening
and people just letting looseman and it was just too late.
Scott (27:22):
Yeah, I still can't get over the fact that the state
said sorry, whatever, but nobodyrallied the troops, literally
or figuratively, and said let'sgo down and get Wilmington some
help, let's go down and getthese other towns in North
Carolina some help.
And then I read a quote.
They asked President McKinleyabout it and McKinley said well,
I haven't heard anything aboutit from the governor, so I think
we're good.
Chris Everett (27:41):
Right, and there was a lot of things, man,
because one see, the people thatdid the massacre of 1898, they
made sure not to remove certainpeople where the federal
government could actuallyintervene, you know what I'm
saying?
So they didn't remove certainpeople that had direct ties to
the federal government.
So they were very smart in whenthey did this.
(28:01):
Then also, you've got torealize, man, we just got out of
a civil war like 30 years ago,and that pretty much bankrupt
this country.
If the federal government wouldhave tried to intervene again,
we probably would have hadanother civil war in our hands
and they weren't going to try togo bankrupt twice with black
people.
They just weren't going to dothat.
And so they just said you knowwhat?
(28:22):
It's just black people.
We just let the states handlethis very situation themselves.
They might really do anythingto federal government employees
or anything like that.
So it is what it is.
The states will handle it.
Let it be a state thing.
We're not trying to get intothis whole civil war business
again.
Scott (28:40):
Yeah, I guess it definitely left some scars on
some people and especially thosepeople that were kind of pissed
off that they lost Right.
Exactly A major theme of thepropaganda and the
insurrectionists was voterdisenfranchisement Really trying
to push the black voter down.
Women obviously weren't votingblack or white at that time.
(29:01):
So what they were trying to dois disenfranchise, and they did
so with literacy concerns, theydid it with gerrymandering and
redistricting, and you see thata lot today still too, and it's
kind of crazy how history kindof repeats itself and lends to
more and more upheaval and you'dwish that maybe they'd catch on
(29:22):
and maybe read a history bookonce in a while, right, Right.
Chris Everett (29:26):
And that's wondering why I did the film was
to show that, hey, we areseeing some of the same things,
and that's why we need to learnabout history, because we like
just some of the things you weretalking about gerrymandering
and things like that.
When you look at history, it'slike hold on, man.
This is the same playbook asthey've used before.
Now he's tweaked it a littlebit, but there's still some of
(29:46):
the same tricks of the trade,and so that's why we need to
study history, and that's one ofthe reasons why I did the film
that, hey, we're not a perfectsociety.
Some things we did right andsome a lot of things we did
wrong, and so this is kind ofshowing that.
And let's go back and say holdon, where do we mess up at,
especially with this wholevoting thing?
Let's go ahead and reallyfigure out a way to make this
(30:09):
thing fair and balanced foreveryone.
Every US citizen has the rightto vote, period.
Let's just stop playing allthese different games and
restructuring things andchanging the rules around the
down the road.
So that's like I said.
That's one of the reasons why Imade this film.
For that exact reason.
Scott (30:26):
So we discussed part one.
What is part two going toreally encompass?
Chris Everett (30:31):
Well, you, know, the first one is all history.
You know what I'm saying wereally talk about.
You know the Civil War.
You know what was Wilmingtonlike before, 1898, 1898, and a
little bit after.
So you know we give you thewhole history lesson in the
first one.
And so I felt like you know, Idon't want to give another
history lesson because you haveit in the first film, yeah, and
(30:51):
then you got other books outhere as well that you can check
out.
I want to give you somethingthat's right now tangible, that
you can actually see andactually be a part of the change
that's happening.
You know, we can't go back 100years and change that, but we
can change what's happeningright now.
And so I wanted to do a parttwo that's going to really
galvanize people to really getactive right now and to do
(31:13):
something, and so it's reallyshowing Wilmington and a whole
new light.
So we document the city ofWilmington from 2020 to 2022 and
the change that was happening.
So, like we were talking aboutearlier, the pandemic, the
global pandemic that washappening murder of George Floyd
, the young people that startedprotesting in front of City Hall
(31:33):
, other people in the communityyou know that's really trying to
do certain things, like youhave this organization called
Genesis Block.
They came out during this timeof really trying to rebuild the
Black middle class, you know,through business and
entrepreneurship.
You have people like SajraKarasin, who launched his
Wilmington and Keller BlackHistory Tour bus at the time as
(31:54):
well.
You have folks like CicotoHouse who are doing things on
the grassroots level that aretrying to tackle health and
wellness in the Black communityand also violence prevention as
well, and so we're just showingthe different stages of change
that's happening in the Blackcommunity in Wilmington during
this two year period.
And so I said you know what Iwant to focus on that, because
(32:17):
you find out that a lot of thesefolks were inspired by the
first film, you know as well,and so the film actually
inspired them to do what they'redoing.
And so I said you know what,let me really highlight that,
let me highlight these folks,because a lot of times these are
the folks that rarely gettalked about or highlighted out
here.
And I said you know what?
I think this is a good way toclose out.
There won't be any moreWilmington fires after this.
(32:40):
This would be it for me andWilmington history.
So this is a good way for me toclose it out and close it out
strong.
It's really a call to actionfor the community today to get
active and really change thecity of Wilmington and bring it
back to what it used to be.
It's awesome.
Scott (32:57):
Yeah, you mentioned that this will be your last chapter
with Wilmington Fire.
Just give us a chance to talk alittle bit about your
grandmaster movie.
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Everett (33:05):
Yeah, grandmaster , that's the film actually
started after the firstWilmington on fire.
So I've been filming that for agood six years now.
A couple years got delayedbecause of COVID, yeah.
But that film is very specialbecause, you know, it's another
side of Black history we'regoing to talk about and those
are stories we like to do.
Like you know, people weren'ttalking about 1898.
(33:26):
You did a film on it.
People aren't talking about theAfrican American presence in
martial arts.
We're doing a film on it.
And so Vic Molo was a martialarts pioneer in the 60s, one of
the first professional Blackkarate champions in the United
States.
He's 80 years old now, has beendoing martial arts for over 70
years, wow.
And so he's a 10th degree Blackbelt.
(33:47):
He's fought people like ChuckNorris.
He did a speed competitionagainst Bruce Lee in 1967.
He actually trained to jumpkarate back in the 80s.
Really, you know as well, he'sdone it all.
He's done it all in martialarts, and his teacher was Robert
Treas, and Robert Treas isactually known as the father of
American karate.
He actually brought karate tothe United States right after
(34:08):
World War II, and so he gotinvolved with his organization
in the 60s and became one of hischief instructors as well
during that time.
So he has that direct lineageof Robert Treas where Robert
Treas got his training while hewas stationed in Okinawa back in
World War II.
So he comes from that directline, that direct lineage from
(34:30):
Okinawa.
You know karate and so you knowthat's where he's from.
He still teaches in that oldschool type of way.
He's still teaching in this day.
He's still teaching man, stillteaching this day.
Man Still teaching this day.
And so the film is just not allabout his history and legacy,
but also how he's been workingwith these two young,
up-and-coming martial artists aswell, his relationship with
them but trying to pass thatknowledge down and keep that
(34:52):
knowledge and that legacy downthrough them.
And so it's to me, man, I thinkit's some of my best work to
date, and actually that's goingto be we're going to have that
ready by the spring, okay, andso that was coming first.
And then Wilmington on fire,two after that.
And so I'm very, I'm veryexcited about that.
He actually lives in Delco man.
He's right across the grid, oh,that's awesome, about 30
minutes from here, yeah.
And so I'm very excited aboutthat.
(35:14):
And that project also led me tolaunch my first festival, which
we did this past October here inWilmington.
So I started a festival.
It's a martial arts, hip hop,an anime festival called Three
Chambers Fest.
Yeah, and we just did it thispast October 13th and 14th in
Wilmington.
It was great, man.
We had a hip hop concert, wehad a Tai Chi class, we have
(35:36):
this interactive film screeningseries called Can I Kick it,
where we take a classic actionfilm or martial arts movie and
we rummage to score live usinghip hop and elements like that,
so you're watching the film in awhole new way and with whole
new music.
And so we rummage to score tothe curl of the Brandon Lee film
, and so we're actually workingon you know next year's dates
(35:57):
and we're going to do it againnext year.
So that's kind of that kind ofgoes hand in hand with the
Grandmaster Project.
Because I had to figure out away to build an audience,
because everyone just wanted meto do Wilmington on fire too and
yeah, and didn't care about themartial arts project I was
doing.
So I had to figure out a way tobuild some audience, build some
interest, and so doing thosetypes of projects on the side
kind of helped build up theanticipation for the Grandmaster
(36:19):
Project.
Scott (36:19):
Yeah, I saw some of the Can I Kick it stuff online and
it was.
It was awesome.
Thanks, martial artists likeall choreographed, you know hip
hop and then some of the otheryou know other films.
It was really, really cool.
Thank you, very cool stuff.
Well, I can't thank you enoughfor coming on today.
This has been an awesomeconversation about a very
serious topic that just needs toget out.
(36:41):
We've got to get this word out.
People have to understand whathappened.
You know, there's so manypeople out there and this is not
a joke, I swear to God thereare so many people out there
that know about Black WallStreet solely because of the HBO
show the Watchman.
Chris Everett (36:53):
You're right.
You're right, man, and I knowpeople told me, I know people
have told me, when I've donescreenings of Women's Tunnel
Fire, they say, Chris, you needto probably stop doing
documentaries and make yourfilms like Watchman or Lovecraft
Country.
I can't do it, I can't do it.
I got to stay, maybe down theroad, maybe a hundred years from
now, once we built out afoundation of real history, then
(37:17):
we can explore those type ofmeetings.
But for right now I'm going tocontinue to do it like this.
And also I also recently boughtthe rights to the Thomas, the
story of Thomas Day, which we'regoing to be doing right after
we knock out Wilmington on firetoo, and Grandmaster.
So Thomas Day is a veryinteresting individual.
He actually revolutionized thefurniture industry Okay, really
(37:39):
in the United States, and he wasbased in North Carolina, but
when he was doing he's AfricanAmerican, but he was a free
person of color, free blackperson during the time of
slavery, right, he was doingthis.
And also he was an abolitionist, involved in the abolitionist
movement as well.
And so Thomas Day, furniture, apiece of furniture man, it's
like having a Bosch yacht.
So I think the starting pricefor his firms is like 300,000,.
(38:00):
You know, low ball, low price,300,000.
And so we're going to be I'mgoing to be doing his project
next, starting next year, andthat's actually probably going
to be my last documentary period.
I'm going to probably close itout, yeah, cause I'm thinking
about doing some martial artsstuff, like some narrative
fiction, some things like this.
I want to grow as an artist andexplore more stuff, with three
(38:22):
chambers fest and stuff likethat.
So you know, the Thomas Daystory I think is very different.
A lot of people know about himand his contribution to history
and just the whole furnitureindustry in general, and so I
think that's a good one.
Just to close it out on, youknow.
Scott (38:38):
Yeah, it sounds cool.
I'm looking forward to it.
Again, thank you so much forthis.
I'm glad we got a chance to sitdown, especially before the
125th anniversary just meant alot to me to get a lot of events
happening.
Chris Everett (38:48):
I got a screening Thursday.
Actually at dreams, thursdaywas never been my six o'clock.
Scott (38:55):
And you do still do screenings like all over, or
yeah, all the time.
Chris Everett (38:59):
I just I just came back from.
I was down in Austin, texas,this past Thursday at Afro Tech.
Afro Tech is a huge black techconference and so we I showed
her to me to the fire there, sowe did a screening, I did a talk
there about the film and so Istill, I still screened man.
It's eight years and we still,we still run the road, we still
(39:20):
screen in Wilmington, all ofthem of Kana and everywhere else
.
You know, people still requestus for screenings.
Scott (39:27):
Got some friends of teachers out there.
Everybody get in touch withChris and try to set up a
screening.
This is one of the greatestdocumentaries I've honestly ever
seen.
It was very eye-opening andjust sad and scary as hell All
in the same breath.
How can people get in touch andfollow you and Wilmington on
fire?
Chris Everett (39:46):
Go, go to Wilmington1898.com.
Wilmington1898.com, we'repretty much revamping the site
Cause, like I said, you knowwe're Wilmington on fire.
So I'm trying to create a sitewhere it's not only a site for
both of the films but it's an1898 resource center.
You know what I'm saying.
So we're going to, we'rebuilding it out now, we're
revamping it now, so we're goingto have different, you know
(40:08):
ways you can get different books, articles, research tools,
awesome study guides where youcan watch the first film.
You know when events that wehave all type of stuff.
So we're really building thatWilmington1898.com into the
ultimate destination of.
If you want to know about whathappened in 1898, go right here
(40:28):
to this site where we got thefilms, we got books, we got
research guides, everything.
And so Wilmington1898, you gothere, got everything, got all
the social media pages forWilmington on fire, you know, et
cetera.
Also, if you want to know aboutThree Chambers, three
Chamberscom, that has everything.
(40:49):
We're revamping that site now.
We're putting up the newpictures and videos of the
inaugural festival up there, butit has all our social media
tags on there as well.
So definitely check out thoseand also with Grandmaster GM
documentary, gm documentary onall social media platforms to
stay up to date with thatproject as well.
Scott (41:09):
I'll put all this in the show notes too, for everybody.
So what's the best way thatpeople can view the film now?
I found it online on Quelle.
Yeah, yeah so right now.
Chris Everett (41:18):
We got it just on Quelle TV.
I did that because Amazon isrobbing people, so so I'm also
Quelle TV.
You know it's a black onstreaming service.
I wanted to help her out.
That's who actually brought meto Afro Tech to show the film
this past weekend.
So I want people to subscribeto this, this platform, because
he needs our help.
And I said you know, let memake Women's Turn on Fire
(41:41):
exclusive on here for a while.
Awesome, where this is the onlyplace you can see.
Because I want people tosupport, I'm going to subscribe
to Quelle TV.
It's only $5.99 a month.
They have some excellentprograms on there excellent
films, documentaries, shorts,features, any moment they have
it.
So my film is on there as well,so check it out, quelle TV.
Scott (42:04):
I've been messing around looking at it and I've watched
four documentaries.
That's good.
My daughter hates me.
She's seven and she's likeDaddy.
This is boring, but yeah, it'swell worth it.
There's some awesomedocumentaries that I've seen
already that I'm looking forwardto keep scrolling through and
checking everything else outAgain.
Chris, thank you so much fordoing this.
(42:24):
Hopefully we get a goodresponse, get more word out.
I wish you the best of luck.
I want to keep in touch.
We follow each other,definitely, definitely.
Chris Everett (42:34):
I may be doing a and I've seen it in a certain
way.
We're going to probably lock itdown next week or so, but we're
going to be doing a rough cutscreening of the Grand Master
documentary in February at ourK-5 Community College.
It'll be free and open to thepublic.
Grand Master more will be thereas well, so I'll keep you
posted on that.
So you definitely should comethrough.
Scott (42:51):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
I'll definitely be there.
I'm a volunteer in Wilmington.
I'm in Wilmington.
This is the party town.
Chris Everett (42:58):
Cool, cool, cool Excellent.
Scott (43:00):
When did you realize that Wilmington on Fire was going to
be so big and that you had madesomething so important?
Chris Everett (43:07):
I think, two times it happened to me.
I think the first one was whenwe premiered the film at the
Kukula West Film FestivalNovember 2015.
Scott (43:15):
Kukula West is a big deal , man.
Chris Everett (43:17):
It's a big festival here in Wilmington.
They do it every year, and sowhen we premiered there, we
actually broke their attendancerecord and we still have the
record to this day for mostattendance screening ever.
We showed it at Thirland Hall,so it was very symbolic showing
it there, because that's wherethe conspirators of the massacre
met and plotted and planned,and so I wanted to have it there
(43:39):
, and so 600 people packed in,man.
And then also we had a line, await line, that was around the
block of people that couldn'tget in.
So that was the first time Isaid you know what?
Because I didn't know what toexpect, man.
I said, man, maybe a couplehundred people, I ain't nobody.
You know what I'm saying, I'mnot.
You know Spike Lee and nobodylike that.
So we'll come see my film.
(43:59):
And so that was the first timethat I knew I had something.
And then also the second timewas the summer of 2019, where
they actually had the firstcongressional hearing on
reparations, and it was big.
It was all in MSNBC, all on theinternet, cnn and Dr Julian
Malvo.
I was at home on my lunch breaklooking at it, streaming it on
(44:20):
my computer while I was onFacebook and Dr Julian Malvo was
a huge fan of the film andshe's seen the film before.
She actually gave me a shoutout.
She urged people to watchWilmington on Fire and it's
required viewing and all of that.
And so soon as that happened, Ihad like a thousand comments,
people hitting me, tagging me onFacebook Because I was always
(44:40):
watching this, because it wasthe first ever hearing on
reparations and we were the onlyfilm to mention during that
whole thing.
And they didn't mention SpikeLee, they didn't mention
Tarantino and those people.
They mentioned Chris Everett.
They were two moments Nobody.
Scott (44:57):
It was Chris Everett man there was no John Singleton, it
was just Chris Everett and mylunch break.
So cool man.
Congratulations with everything.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
Folks check all of Chris'sstuff out.
Wilmington on Fire is, I can'tsay enough, but it's such a
great documentary.
Check it out and follow him onsocial media.
Thank you so much, chris.
Like I said, I wish you thebest with everything.
(45:18):
Thank you.
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