"Wilmington on Fire" is a feature-length documentary that gives a historical and present day look at the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 and how the descendants of the victims of the event are asking for legal action in regards to compensation. The Wilmington Massacre of 1898 was a bloody attack on the African-American community by a heavily armed white mob on November 10, 1898 in the port city of Wilmington, North Carolina. It is also considered one of the only examples of a violent overthrow of an existing government (coup d'etat) and left countless numbers of African-American citizens dead. This event was the springboard for the white supremacy movement and Jim Crow (segregation) throughout the state of North Carolina, and the American South.