text assets/images/thmbs/intro.gif Yellow Journalism

In the late 1890s, newspapers were cheap and news was fast. Technology improved greatly and news from around the world arrived instantly via telegraph. Printers no longer had to set type by hand, allowing periodicals to expand their circulation. Founded in 1846, the Associated Press had grown large and now helped bring the resources of reporting teams around the country to member newspapers.

Competition was intense. In order to attract readers, newspapers sought sensational stories - and nothing was quite as sensational as a war that pitted an evil tyrant against freedom fighters. Following the lead of prominent New York City editors Joseph

]]> Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, printed sensational anti-Spanish, pro-Cuban stories that spun a long conflict for Cuban independence into a simple good-versus-evil battle Americans could embrace.

North Carolina newspapers joined in the calls for war with Spain, but they did not practice the often extreme activism of the NYC papers, whose projects included solving a murder and breaking a woman out of a Cuban jail. N.C. papers did not take a leading role in current events until the 1898 midterm election.

White Supremacy

In 1894, a coalition or "Fusion" of Republicans and Populists swept the state's midterm elections,

]]> ending two decades of dominance by the Democratic Party. In 1896 the Fusionists elected the first Republican governor since 1877. Democrats were determined to regain power in the state, but to do so, they needed to split the Fusion. The N.C. Democratic Party chairman, Furnifold Simmons, identified the color line as an issue that could split the shaky coalition, and the party launched a statewhite white supremacy campaign.

Items for this period have been carefully selected because of their sensitive nature. A serious student of this period will find items much more offensive than those included here.

Click on the thumbnails to view materials for this section.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1897-radt-0831.gif When residents of Cuba rebelled against Spanish rule in 1895, Americans were interested immediately, and newspapers, such as the Raleigh Daily Times, helped keep them interested during the three years it took the U.S. to enter the conflict.

Americans resented the presence of a colony ninety miles off the coast of Florida and were eager to support another culture trying to shake off a tyrant. The conflict developed as the media went through a turblent period of change. The term "yellow journalism" was coined in 1897 to describe the new and often frightening tendency toward sensationalism and activist journalism in major newspapers.

]]> assets/images/1897-radt-0831.gif entire issue (new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. Editorial. 1897. The Raleigh Daily Times. August 31. North Carolina Newspaper Project, State Library of North Carolina & North Carolina State Archives. Microfilm reel number RaDT-1.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-peoples-0121.gif This column about the conditions in Cuba ran in the People's Paper, a Populist organ in Charlotte. Conditions on the island detoriated quickly after 1895.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that no war in American history was more influenced by the media than the Spanish-American War of 1898. News was cheap and fast, thanks to new technology in both printing and communications. Reports like this one spread like wildfire through the papers and reached an audience increasingly interested in world affairs. Until the 1890s, American foreign policy had consisted largely of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which advocated isolationism.

]]> assets/images/1898-peoples-0121.gif entire issue (new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. The image has been edited from its originial single-column format to allow for easier reading. "Island of Cuba Pictured." 1898. The People's Paper (Charlotte, NC). January 21. North Carolina Newspaper Project, State Library of North Carolina & North Carolina State Archives. Microfilm reel number ChPP1.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-rancw-0217.gif While the American public increasingly favored intervening in Cuba, it was the explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine in the Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, that propelled the U.S. toward war with Spain. President McKinley had sent the battleship to the harbor in response to fears that rioting in Havana could endanger U.S. citizens.

The cause of the explosion has never been determined, but the media generally blamed Spain, despite the lack of any evidence and the fact that Spanish officials acted immediately to rescue and aid survivors. Regardless of the facts behind the explosion, the event accelerated the two countries' move towards war.

]]> assets/images/1898-rancw-0217.gif entire page (new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. "The Battle-Ship Maine is Blown Up." 1898. The North Carolinian (Raleigh, NC). February 17. North Carolina Newspaper Project, State Library of North Carolina & North Carolina State Archives. Microfilm reel number RaNCw5.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-rancw-0512.gif American newspapers took up the battle cry of "Remember the Maine!" in its discussion of the war, blaming Spain for the destruction of the battleship in the Havana harbor. Camp Bryan Grimes, mentioned in the article, was the training facility of North Carolina's volunteer infantry.

Tensions with Spain reached a boiling point just as advances in imaging technology made printing images, previously reserved for the higher cost periodicals like Harper's Weekly, possible for newspapers. The expanded ability of the press to use images amplified the effect of media sensationalism, a major factor in creating popular support for the war.

]]> assets/images/1898-rancw-0512.jpg entire page (new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. "Remember the Maine!" 1898. The North Carolinian (Raleigh, NC). May 12. North Carolina Newspaper Project, State Library of North Carolina & North Carolina State Archives. Microfilm reel number RaNCw5.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-wilmstar-0719.gif Advertising and product safety regulations were still years away when these ads were printed in an 1898 Wilmington paper, and many ads were printed to look like news articles or other official statements. These two ads, which ran in a single column on the front page, echoed the paper's headlines in style and content.

Advertising has always been an important component of the media. And, in the late 1890s, advertisers constructed their ads to fit the sensationalism of the day. America was increasingly becoming a consumer-based society, and companies were competing as intensely as newspaper publishers were for attention and sales.

]]> assets/images/1898-wilmstar-0719.gif full size (opens in new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. The image has been edited from its originial single-column format to allow for easier reading. Advertisements. 1898. The Morning Star (Wilmington, NC). July 19. North Carolina Newspaper Project, State Library of North Carolina & North Carolina State Archives. Microfilm reel number WmgSTARd63.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-wilmstar-0823.gif The state Democratic Party had been waging its white supremacy campaign for only a couple of months when an opportunity presented itself. Alex Manly, the black editor of the Daily Journal in Wilmington, wrote an editorial on August 18 as an angry response to a speech by Rebecca Felton, wife of a Georgia Populist leader, urging lynching as a way to prevent the rapes of white women by black men.

Manly's fiery words earned little support from either race, and even African-American leaders urged him to suspend publication of the paper. However, by that time the editorial had already sparked racial tensions across the state.

]]> assets/images/1898-wilmstar-0823.gif entire page (new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. The image has been edited from its originial single-column format to allow for easier reading. "Vile and Villainous." 1898. The Morning Star (Wilmington, NC). August 23. North Carolina Newspaper Project, State Library of North Carolina & North Carolina State Archives. Microfilm reel number WmgSTARd63.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-rancw-0825.gif The North Carolinian and its daily counterpart, the News & Observer, both edited by Josephus Daniels, were among the first newspapers in the state to print political cartoons, and they ran dozens of them as part of the carefully orchestrated white supremacy campaign launched by the Democrats in 1898.

While N.C. newspapers didn't embrace activist journalism with the same fervor of the New York papers involving Cuba, the mostly Democratic press in the state was very active in orchestrating the 1898 campaign. Editorials and cartoons urged white readers to throw off the "negro domination" supposedly gripping the state under Fusion rule.

]]> assets/images/1898-rancw-0825.jpg full size (opens in new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. "A Serious Question - How Long Will This Last?" 1898. The North Carolinian (Raleigh, NC). August 25. North Carolina Newspaper Project, State Library of North Carolina & North Carolina State Archives. Microfilm reel number RaNCw5.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-rancw-0908.gif Alex Manly's August 18 editorial defending black men accused of raping white women has often been cited as the cause of the post-election riot in Wilmington. But the editorial alone did not spark racial tensions; newspapers kept the story alive by reprinting somewhere in the state nearly every day from its initial publication to Election Day.

This account, a month after the editorial's publication, is a typical example of the sensationalism North Carolina papers used in the campaign. It attempts to appeal directly to readers' emotions rather than to any sense of logic, a common approach used after the Civil War in discussions on interracial affairs.

]]> assets/images/1898-rancw-0908.gif full size (opens in new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. The image has been edited from its originial single-column format to allow for easier reading. "White Women Slandered!" 1898. The North Carolinian (Raleigh, NC). September 8. North Carolina Newspaper Project, State Library of North Carolina & North Carolina State Archives. Microfilm reel number RaNCw5

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-asheville-0929.gif While a substantial number of newspapers in 1898 were heavily partisan, independent papers, such as The Asheville Daily Gazette, were beginning to appear.

This editorial responds to criticism stemming from the paper's coverage of a debate between the district's candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrat W. T. Crawford and Republican incumbent Richmond Pearson. The Gazette called the debate "a wrangle between two men who were old enough know know better" and criticized it for ignoring the issues in favor of stirring up partisan prejudice. The paper was critical of both the 1898 campaign and the Spanish-American War.

]]> assets/images/1898-asheville-0929.gif full size (opens in new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. The image has been edited from its originial single-column format to allow for easier reading. "Questions to a Pie Organ." 1898. Asheville Daily Gazette (Asheville, NC). September 28. North Carolina Newspaper Project, State Library of North Carolina & North Carolina State Archives. Microfilm reel number AsvGAZ-3.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-caucasian-1103.gif The Caucasian was a Populist paper printing in Raleigh during the campaign. It was a staunch opponent to the Democratic Party and its tactics in 1898.

As the campaign stretched on, the Democrats' white supremacy tactics gave the mostly white Populist Party a huge challenge. Its members were deserting the party to vote with the Democrats, and the party responded by trying to adopt white supremacy as its own platform. The Populist media accused Democrats of appointing blacks to office and of stuffing the ballot boxes with the help of blacks. But the damage had already been done, and the Populist Party never regained its strength in N.C. politics.

]]> assets/images/1898-caucasian-1103.gif entire page (new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. "Secret Circular Simmons' Bull-Pens: The Democratic Method of Stuffing Ballot-Boxes and Stealing Elections in the East." The Caucasian (Raleigh, NC). November 3. North Carolina Newspaper Project, State Library of North Carolina & North Carolina State Archives. Microfilm reel number ClCAU-4.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-wilmstar-1108.gif These articles from the front page of the Wilmington Morning Star were typical of election day papers across the state. Brooklyn was in the city's mostly black First Ward.

When reading the column on the right, keep in mind the editorial snippets in the left column. This Democratic paper urged readers to vote while keeping in mind "that the safety of the women of North Carolina is at stake." Perhaps the clearest example of the media's role in the 1898 campaign can be found at the end of the column: the paper urges its readers to vote early and then go "work" in the mostly black First and Fifth Wards. This "work" was the job of threatening African-Americans to stay away from the polls.

]]> assets/images/1898-wilmstar-1108.gif entire page (new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. The image has been edited from its originial single-column format to allow for easier reading. The Morning Star (Wilmington, NC). 1898. August 23. North Carolina Newspaper Project, State Library of North Carolina & North Carolina State Archives. Microfilm reel number WmgSTARd63.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-racedisturbance.gif This is the Colliers's Weekly cover illustration for the November 26, 1898 issue carrying news of the race riot in Wilmington. The coverage inside the issue heavily favored the whites, and historians generally agree that the scene shown in this illustration did not happen. White men owned nearly all of the guns in the city.

This periodical's coverage of the riot was typical of the media at large. Most newspapers blamed Wilmington's blacks for the violence brought against them. The only challenges in the media were made by in-state papers opposed to the Democrats' grab for power, not the racial violence or the forced resignations of the city's mayor and aldermen.

]]> assets/images/1898-racedisturbance.jpg full-size (opens in new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. "Scene in the Race Disturbance at Wilmington, NC." 1898. Colliers's Weekly, November 26. General Negative Collection, North Carolina State Archives. Call Number N.66.7.119.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1898-recordoffice.gif This is a Colliers's Weekly photograph of white vigilantes proudly posing in front of the Daily Record office in Wilmington after burning it down on November 10, 1898.

The day's riots immediately received national attention, with most people praising the white victory over "negro domination" while others called for federal intervention. With News & Observer editor Josephus Daniels leading the effort to publicize the events, media coverage was biased in favor of the white Democrats who had run the campaign. IN 2000, the state appointed a committee to investigate the events; the commission's report was published in 2006.

]]> assets/images/1898-recordoffice.jpg full-size (opens in new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. "The Destroyed Record Building." 1898. Colliers's Weekly, November 26. General Negative Collection, North Carolina State Archives. Call Number N.53.16.5306.

]]> image assets/images/thmbs/1908-harpersweekly.gif This is the cover of the March 28, 1908 Harper's Weekly, featuring a political cartoon about the end of the Populist Party's influence in North Carolina. The state returned to being a largely one-party state after the 1898 campaign. The Republican Party didn't win another statewide office until 1972.

This cartoon characterizes North Carolina's break with Populist policies as a horse's violent rejection of the "Populist shoe." The N.C. Populist Party was mostly destroyed in 1898, as it shifted to support a white supremacy platform in a desperate attempt to keep some of the state's poor whites from returning to the Democrats.

]]> assets/images/1908-harpersweekly.jpg full-size (opens in new window)]]> This image is provided courtesy of the NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES and may be protected by copyright law, Title 17 US Code. The user must obtain the proper release forms prior to reproducing this material. "That Hurt!" 1908. Harper's Weekly, March 28. General Negative Collection, North Carolina State Archives. Call Number N.85.5.3.

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