What if I told you that just decades after the Civil War, a biracial political alliance won control of North Carolina?

Fusion was a racially integrated movement that challenged the status quo white rule, added 80,000 new voters to the rolls, and elected or appointed Blacks to public positions, from local police, all the way up to the U.S. Congress.

It's a hopeful, surprising story.

But Fusion also has a tragic, violent conclusion one that includes the only successful coup detat of an elected government in American history, So... what happened?

In the 1890s, Wilmington was the largest city in North Carolina.

Many Black men had established themselves as prominent business leaders there, and were also active in the Republican Party.

During Reconstruction, Republicans were the party of Abraham Lincoln, whereas Democrats were the plantation owners and former slaveholders.

Black Republicans wanted to challenge the voting restrictions passed by North Carolina's Democrats.

But they couldn't do it alone.

At the same time, white farmers upset with growing debt and falling prices, had turned away from the Democratic Party and created their own Populist movement.

In 1894, Black Republicans saw an opportunity to team up with the largely white Populist party at the polls and “fuse” together for common goals.

Hence their name: Fusionists.

The move was a pragmatic one an alliance of convenience, not one based on ideals of racial harmony.

But it was a biracial, class-conscious movement.

And... it worked.

The Fusionists dominated the North Carolina state elections in 1894 and 96, electing Daniel Russell, to governor, and Marion Butler, and Jeter C. Pritchard to the U.S. Senate.

For the first time since Reconstruction, Republicans and Populists held a majority of statewide offices.

Even more remarkable was the boom in Black civil servants During the Fusionist era, George H. White represented North Carolina in the U.S. Congress, and Customs Officer John Campbell Dancy held the highest paid federal appointed position in the state.

Wilmington also had multiple Black aldermen, firefighters, and policemen.

In office, the Fusion coalition enacted a series of changes.

They increased funding for public education, state prisons, and charitable institutions, and pursued electoral reforms.

This election law alone led to an increase of more than 80,000 registered voters.

And in 1896, an estimated 87% of Black voters went to the polls.

So why didn't it last?

In, short, white supremacist backlash to Black political power.

Prominent whiteowned media outlets, such as the Raleigh News and Observer, orchestrated a campaign to whip up racist, antiFusion fear Business leaders recruited a white paramilitary unit called the Red Shirts to terrorize Black voters.

Their efforts culminated, in November 1898, in the overthrow of Wilmington's democratically elected government.

Fusion officials were forced at gunpoint to resign their positions, and North Carolina began passing legislation to disenfranchise all Black voters.

It would be almost another century before an African American represented the state in Congress again.

Fusionism was ultimately fleeting.

But for a brief moment in the 19th century, integrated North Carolina became not just a dream, but a reality.

To learn more watch American Coup, Wilmington, 1898 from American Experience.