The Museum of the Albemarle will host History for Lunch on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, at 12 p.m. in the Gaither Auditorium. Charles Oldham, attorney and award-winning author of The Senator’s Son, will take you back to an October night in 1905 when a horrifying scene was found onboard the Harry A. Berwind, off the coast of Cape Fear. One crewman lay dead. The four officers all were gone—murdered too it would turn out; their bodies dumped into the sea. Three sailors remained alive, one tied up, all telling different stories, all blaming each other. The three sailors were Black. The dead officers were White. A legal spectacle began that would captivate much of the nation’s press and fuel a sensational trial in Wilmington. It was in Wilmington, after all, that shocking racial violence had occurred not long before, and now the city remained in the clutches of white supremacists. Most observers could have predicted a quick verdict and a triple hanging, if not an even quicker lynching. Yet the legal drama would defy predictions, lasting seven years, reaching the Supreme Court, pulling in presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft—then even being twisted into a fanciful, big-budget movie. In the end, so many participants—from jurors to lawyers to politicians—acted against type that justice had a fighting chance.
The Museum will offer History for Lunch in-person and through Zoom. Register in advance through the Museum’s Facebook page or website to receive a link to attend the lecture virtually.
The virtual program is supported by Friends of the Museum of the Albemarle.
