Lost in History: Events America Forgot but Shouldn’t

America’s Only Successful Government Overthrow

Picture this: armed white supremacists overthrowing a legally elected government, killing dozens of innocent people, and getting away with it completely. This isn’t from some distant dictatorship—it happened right here on American soil in 1898. The Wilmington coup was the only successful coup d’état in United States history, when white supremacists violently overthrew a democratically-elected, biracial government in North Carolina’s largest city. As many as 60 Black Americans were killed in a premeditated murder spree, with all reported victims being black. What makes this even more shocking is that after the coup, more than 100,000 registered Black voters fled the city, and no Black citizen would serve in public office for three-quarters of a century. The conspiracy involved some of the most powerful men in the state, yet no one was ever prosecuted. In just four years, Black voter registration in North Carolina plummeted from 126,000 to a mere 6,100.

When Corporate Power Turned Deadly

The year 1914 brought one of America’s most horrific examples of corporate brutality against working families. The Ludlow Massacre resulted in the deaths of 25 people, including 11 children, when Colorado National Guard and company guards attacked striking coal miners and their families. But here’s what’s truly heartbreaking: eleven children and two women were found burned and suffocated in a cellar where they had hidden from gunfire. The attackers had soaked the tents in kerosene and set them on fire while families were trapped inside. From the strike’s beginning in September 1913 to federal intervention, an estimated 69 to 199 people were killed, making it the “deadliest strike in the history of the United States”. The aftermath saw even more violence, with as many as 50 people dying during the reaction to the massacre. Yet when all was said and done, twelve National Guardsmen were exonerated before a court-martial.

The Summer That Changed Everything

The summer of 1919 earned a chilling nickname that most Americans have never heard: the Red Summer. This wasn’t about politics—it was about blood. White mobs attacked Black communities across more than 30 U.S. cities in a coordinated wave of racial terrorism. Chicago and Washington D.C. saw some of the worst violence, with Black neighborhoods under siege for days. What made this summer different was that Black communities fought back, marking the beginning of organized self-defense movements that would shape the civil rights struggle for decades. The violence was so widespread and systematic that it represented a nationwide attempt to reverse the gains Black Americans had made during World War I. Many Black veterans, having fought for democracy abroad, returned home to find they had to fight for basic survival on American streets.

America’s Largest Labor War

The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in United States history, where some 10,000 armed coal miners confronted 3,000 lawmen and strikebreakers during a five-day conflict in 1921. What triggered this massive confrontation? The assassination of a sheriff who dared to side with miners over coal companies. Sheriff Sid Hatfield was shot dead by company agents as he entered a courthouse, outraging miners who considered him a hero. The battle ended after approximately one million rounds were fired, requiring intervention by the U.S. Army on presidential order. The miners came prepared for war—estimates put their numbers anywhere from 7,000 to 20,000, many of them World War I veterans who organized themselves like an army division. During the fighting, something extraordinary happened: American citizens were subjected to aerial bombardment on their own soil, with planes dropping gas bombs and explosives on the miners. Reports of casualties ranged from as few as 20 killed to as many as 100, but the actual number has never been confirmed.

The Citizenship That Wasn’t Really Citizenship

In 1924, Congress passed what seemed like a landmark law: the Indian Citizenship Act, granting U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans. But here’s the cruel twist—citizenship didn’t mean the right to vote. Many states continued to deny Native Americans voting rights for decades, forcing tribes to fight state by state for this fundamental democratic right. Some states didn’t grant Native Americans full voting rights until the 1960s. The act was also a double-edged sword, as it undermined tribal sovereignty while offering individual rights that many Native Americans neither wanted nor needed. It represented the government’s continued attempt to force assimilation rather than respect tribal governance. The promise of citizenship rang hollow when basic civil rights remained out of reach.

Operation Wetback’s Devastating Sweep

The name alone should tell you everything about the 1954 immigration crackdown that targeted Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans. Operation Wetback led to the deportation of over one million people—including many U.S. citizens who were swept up simply because they looked Mexican. The operation used military-style tactics, with raids on neighborhoods, workplaces, and even schools. Families were separated, with American-born children sometimes deported alongside their parents to countries they’d never seen. The conditions during these mass deportations were inhumane, with people packed into overcrowded trains and buses without adequate food, water, or sanitation. What’s most disturbing is how the operation was celebrated at the time as a great success, with little regard for the human rights violations it involved. The psychological trauma affected entire communities for generations.

When Prisoners Demanded Human Dignity

The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 began as a desperate plea for basic human dignity and ended in a bloodbath that shocked the nation. Inmates at the New York correctional facility revolted against inhumane conditions—overcrowding, inadequate medical care, restricted mail, and brutal treatment by guards. For four days, the prisoners held control of the facility, issuing demands for reforms that seem reasonable today: adequate food, medical care, and an end to censorship. They even released hostages as a gesture of good faith during negotiations. But when authorities decided to storm the prison, the result was catastrophic: 43 people died, including hostages and inmates. Most shocking of all, investigations later revealed that law enforcement, not the prisoners, killed the hostages. The state had initially blamed the inmates for the hostage deaths, perpetrating a lie that persisted for years.

The Day Philadelphia Bombed Its Own Citizens

May 13, 1985, should be remembered as one of the darkest days in American policing history. Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on a row house occupied by MOVE, a Black liberation group, killing 11 people including five children. The bomb started a fire that destroyed 65 homes in the neighborhood, leaving 250 people homeless. What makes this even more outrageous is that the fire department was ordered to “let the fire burn” while residents’ homes went up in flames. The MOVE members had been engaged in a standoff with police, but dropping an explosive device on a residential neighborhood was an unprecedented escalation. Among the dead were children as young as seven years old. It took the city decades to offer a formal apology, and the trauma continues to haunt the affected community. This wasn’t some accident—it was a deliberate decision to use military-grade explosives against American citizens.

Lincoln’s Largest Mass Execution

Here’s something they don’t teach in most history classes: Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, authorized the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Thirty-eight Dakota men were hanged simultaneously in Minnesota in 1862, following what was essentially a show trial after a brief uprising. The Dakota had been driven to desperation by broken treaties, stolen land, and deliberate starvation tactics. When they finally fought back, the government’s response was swift and brutal. Originally, 303 Dakota men were sentenced to death, but Lincoln commuted most sentences—though 38 executions still proceeded. The men were hanged in front of a cheering crowd of thousands in what was essentially a public spectacle. This mass execution was part of a broader campaign to remove Dakota people from Minnesota entirely, regardless of their involvement in the conflict.

Medical Racism Hidden in Plain Sight

For 40 years, from 1932 to 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted one of the most unethical medical experiments in American history. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study deliberately deceived Black men in rural Alabama, telling them they were receiving free healthcare for “bad blood” when they actually had syphilis. Even after penicillin was discovered as an effective treatment for syphilis in the 1940s, researchers continued to withhold treatment to study the disease’s progression. These men suffered and died unnecessarily while researchers took notes. They infected their wives and children, spreading the disease to innocent family members. When the study was finally exposed in 1972, it caused national outrage and led to major reforms in medical research ethics. The men and their families had been used as human guinea pigs, their lives considered expendable in the name of science. This betrayal of trust had lasting effects on Black Americans’ relationship with the medical establishment.

Did you expect that some of America’s darkest chapters would involve such systematic cruelty from the very institutions meant to protect its citizens?