White supremacists seized power and massacred black Americans during the Wilmington massacre, the only instance of a municipal government being overthrown in United States history.

White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism and was a key justification for European colonialism.

The Wilmington insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898, was a municipal-level coup d'état and a massacre that was carried out by white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, on Thursday, November 10, 1898. The white press in Wilmington originally described the event as a race riot perpetrated by a mob of black people. In later study, the event has been characterized as a violent overthrow of a duly elected government by white supremacists.