 White women, as social and economic beneficiaries of a white-dominant racial hierarchy, were not only purveyors of this treatment of blacks, but in many cases, actively sought such treatment against blacks.For example, just 10 years prior to the attacks in Springfield, the notion of protecting white virtue was violently used to overthrow a local government led by a coalition of blacks and poor whites in Wilmington, North Carolina, resulting in the only successful coup d'état on U.S. soil.The attack followed a speech by Rebecca Felton, a well respected socialite who later became the first female U.S. senator.