'Killed dozens:' Kenan Stadium linked with lost history of the Wilmington Massacre

Thousands of roaring fans have cheered in stadiums like Carter-Finley at North Carolina State, Memorial Stadium at Clemson, Bank of America in Charlotte and Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill – never realizing the complex history hidden by each of these sites. Some stadiums cover entire cemeteries that thousands have walked past without even realizing. Another stadium blankets the site of a brutal lynching.

Until recently, most people had never heard of the time a group of white men stormed into Wilmington, slaughtering Black men, burning Black-owned businesses and – for the only time in American history – overthrowing an actual city government.

It happened right here in North Carolina. Newspapers spoke of Black families hiding in the woods, trying to preserve their lives.

One of the major players in the massacre: William Rand Kenan, Sr., namesake of Kenan Stadium at UNC.

The white merchants had bought a rapid-fire gun, an early version of a machine gun that fired 420 rounds a minute. They mounted it on a wagon drawn by a horse, creating a terrifying weapon to kill and intimidate Black men.

"Kenan himself was commander of a gun wagon," said Zucchino. "They rolled it through the streets during the day."

Zucchino found records showing the gun crew opened fire on a crowd of Black men and killed an estimated 25 people. In all, historians estimate at least 60 Black men were killed, but it's possible over 100 died. Some crawled under houses after being shot and died there.

"Not all the bodies were recovered," said Zucchino.

Wilmington was targeted for a coup because it was one of the most successfully integrated cities in North Carolina after the Civil War, with a strong Black middle class.

Wilmington Massacre: 125 years ago, white mob killed dozens of African Americans in NC

"The coup was celebrated openly," said Zucchino. "There were celebrations in Raleigh afterwards. It was seen as this momentous event that brought white men back into positions of power and completely eliminated Black men from from voting and from politics."

Today, Kenan's name is emblazoned on a stadium where Black students play football and build the foundations of successful careers in sports.

According to William Sturkey, a former associate professor of history at UNC, Kenan was seen for decades as a symbol of a courageous soldier, a hero.

"One of the problems with William Kenan's memory is that the most consequential thing that he ever did has been the very thing that's been left out," said Sturkey.

He says the next generation softened the story of the Wilmington Massacre, painting it as a necessary evil and writing that there were problems within the Black community that had to be dealt with.

"His son even cast a shadow of doubt on whether or not his father was even there," said Sturkey. "But of course we have the picture of him on the wagon with the gun."

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So when Kenan's son, William Rand Kenan Jr. donated money for the stadium and asked to have it named after his father, the university agreed.

"I think it's important to realize when he named the stadium after his father, he never imagined that Black people would be playing there," said Sturkey. "(It was) just completely unbelievable to him."

But within a generation, the university had de-segregated, and more and more Black students began playing football for UNC – playing beneath the namesake of a man who had openly slaughtered Black men in Wilmington.

"But of course, that was all swept under the rug for a long time," said Sturkey.

But all the true history was waiting right there in the school's archives, just a few steps away from the stadium itself, waiting to be discovered.

For many years, the history of the Wilmington Massacre was relatively unknown. However, in 2018 NBC Sports Writer Craig Calcaterra uncovered the connection between Kenan Stadium's namesake and the massacre.

In response, UNC's newspaper The Daily Tar Heel also helped spread the word to students.

The university couldn't rename the stadium due to a moratorium against renaming buildings.

"But at the same time, young Black men who are essential to the football program may not want to go play in a stadium named for this guy that went around killing young Black men a few generations ago," said Sturkey.

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In response, the university chose to keep the name Kenan Stadium, but re-dedicate it from the father to the son.

Zucchino says he would love to see a marker of plaque that gives the entire background story.

"Otherwise people will just walk by and say, well, there's Keenan Stadium. They will have no idea what the history was."

Sturkey agrees that, more than a renaming or a re-dedication, the real history should just become part of the regular conversation. It should be common knowledge.

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"I think it's actually harder to keep a name and teach the real history than it is just to change the name and take down the plaques," said Sturkey.

Should this painful history serve to divide North Carolinians?

"No," said WRAL Sports Anchor Chris Lea, whose curiosity led the WRAL Documentary team to produce the 'Ghosts in the Stadium' documentary. Lea has historic roots in North Carolina himself – with ancestors who were enslaved in this very state.

"Knowing real, local American history that helped shape our communities will help us understand and empathize with each other, while also starting a healing process for everyone to move forward with."

The full 'Ghosts in the Stadium' documentary is embedded at the top of this story. It also the stories of cemeteries beneath Carter-Finley at NC State and Memorial Stadium at Clemson, as well as a lynching site beneath Bank of America stadium in Charlotte. Return each weekend in November for in-depth stories on the history of those locations.

Ghosts in the Stadium is available for on-demand viewing on WRALDocumentary.com, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku and Samsung Smart TV.

The documentary is available on WRAL Doc's YouTube channel.

Listen to Chris Lea explain how he became fascinated with the history hidden by football stadiums across NC and SC.