Sadly, many tragic and, at least by today’s standards, inexplicable acts took place following Reconstruction in the period called the Bourbon Redemption. Thankfully, this is history we’re talking about, not current events.
Anyone involved in these reprehensible acts is long dead, which is why the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Report‘s call for compensation for victims and “atonement” by parties involved in a riot that occurred 108 years ago is, frankly, inexplicable.
The commission, created by legislation sponsored by Rep. Thomas Wright, D-New Hanover and the late Sen. Luther Jordan, released its report yesterday to much fanfare. It seeks compensation in the billions of dollars, if one Larry Thomas, identified by The Herald-Sun of Durham as a “compensation advocate,” is to be believed.
Wright says he’s going to introduce legislation that will “include that the parties responsible for the violence atone for their own involvement.” Since any adult involved in this event would be, say, 128 years old right now. I don’t think there are many, any, left to atone for any involvement they may have had in an incident that occurred in November 1898.
So we’re left with the compensation demand. To whom will this compensation go? Who shall pay it? I guess we’ll know when Wright files his bill in 2007.
