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It's one of many events scheduled around the 123rd anniversary of the overthrow of local government.

Activists in Wilmington have been pushing for a civilian review board for years. Are they going to get one this year?

Sonya Patrick, leader of the Wilmington arm of the Black Lives Matter movement, said her group had been advocating for those two changes in particular for years. The protests, she said, including the rallies held by BLM/ILM at the 1898 memorial on North Third Street, helped provide the momentum necessary for those changes to occur. The history of Long Leaf Park — it was formerly named after Hugh MacRae, one of the organizers of the Wilmington coup and massacre of 1898, in which dozens of Blacks were killed and others run out of town — made many Black residents reluctant to go there. The...

 The murder of George Floyd last Memorial Day reinvigorated the public outcry for increased accountability of police. (Port City Daily photo/file) WILMINGTON –– A year from the death of George Floyd, the development of a citizens review board to oversee police actions and check for potential misconduct is making slow progress. Community members have demanded the city form a police oversight committee for years, since 2013 when Brandon Smith was killed in a controversial police-involved shooting in Castle Hayne. The murder of Floyd last Memorial Day reinvigorated the public outcry f...

"This is a movement," she added. At Thursday's protest, about 30 people sat on bricks in a circle around each other at the 1898 Memorial, most wearing masks, telling stories and showing support for each other. "Let's stop this madness in the world. I feel like people are listening," said Kenyah Hewitt. Some discussions surrounded Brown's case and others like it. One man said it seems in cases like Brown's, Black men and women don't automatically get their personal story told about who they were as a person, because everyone is so focused on the way they died and whether it was justified or no...