with carcasses," and the fact that some members of the white mob posed for a photograph in front of the charred remnants of "The Daily Record," Waddell painted himself in the article as a reluctant non-violent leader – or accidental hero – "called upon" to lead under "intolerable conditions." He painted the white mob not as murderous lawbreakers, but as peaceful, law-abiding citizens who simply wanted to restore law and order. He also portrayed any violence committed by whites as either being accidental or executed in self-defense, effectively laying blame on both sides: Waddell's account, and his effective label of "race riot," ignored the fact that the overthrow was a carefully planned conspiracy, turned the coup into an event that "spontaneously happened," helped usher in the Solid South, and set the precedent for the application of the term "race riot," that is still used today. He defined the historical narrative of the coup. Death Waddell died in Wilmington in 1912. References Retrieved on 2008-09-27 External links Inventory of the Alfred M. Waddell Papers, 1768-1935, in the Southern Historical Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill NC History Project 1834 births 1912 deaths 19th-century American politicians American newspaper editors American people of Scottish descent American people of Scotch-Irish descent Confederate States Army officers Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina Leaders who took power by coup American white supremacists Mayors of places in North Carolina North Carolina Constitutional Unionists North Carolina Know Nothings People of North Carolina in the American Civil War Politicians from Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington insurrection of 1898