connecting*the*dots

To make a point, I’ve tweaked one line from the glowing write-up Charles Brantley Aycock received at The Architect Of The Capitol site, which proudly displays his memorial bronze, to read:

Charles Brantley Aycock was born on November 1, 1859, on a farm near Fremont in Wayne County, North Carolina. Though his father died when he was 15, his mother and older brothers recognized his abilities and determined that he should go to college. After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1880 with first honors in both oratory and essay writing, he entered law practice in Goldsboro and supplemented his income by teaching school. His success in both fields led to his appointment as superintendent of schools for Wayne County and to service on the school board in Goldsboro.

His political career began in 1888 as a presidential elector for Grover Cleveland, when he gained distinction as an orator and political debater. From 1893 to 1897 he served as U.S. attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, and he was elected governor in 1900 after participating as a primary conspirator in the murderous 1898 Wilmington Race Riot, which proved to be the one and only coup d’etat in United States history. His greatest achievement in office was in education, to which he was dedicated after watching his mother make her mark when signing a deed. He felt that no lasting social reform could be accomplished without education. He supported increased salaries for teachers, longer school terms, and new school buildings; almost 3000 schools were built during his administration. Other reforms he supported included laws to establish fair election machinery, to prevent lynching, to erect a reformatory for boys, and to restrict child labor.

He resumed his law practice in 1905, but in 1911 he yielded to pressure to seek the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. He died on April 4, 1912, while campaigning.

The truth is a bitch, eh? Unfortunately, I don’t have the time, nor the energy to get into a battle to add the contextual facts to his Wikipedia entry.

Sources:

• Jackson Davis Collection: General Education Board
• The History of Jim Crow: Biography: Alex Manly
• News & Observer: A fitting response to Wilmington 1898
• Politics in the South: The Populist Style Of Politics
• The North Carolina Election Of 1898: Grand Democratic Rally

Exactly eighty-one years before the mess of 11/3/1979, a coalition of white leaders and white supremacists took to the streets in Wilmington, North Carolina, killing over a hundred black people in the process of performing a coup d’etat.

The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 was tragic on three distinct levels:

1. A group of white political and business leaders stole an election, where black people had successfully served in positions of local government just 25 years following the end of the Civil War.
2. Not content with the speed of the political change over, the newly “elected” powers overthrew the established leaders by launching a riot, resulting in the murder of more than a hundred black people, while driving numerous more out of town.
3. The progressive nature of black citizenship and inter-racial political cooperation in North Carolina absolutely preceded the national civil rights movent of the 50’s and 60’s; this one event completely reversed the course of civil rights in all of North Carolina and served as a signal to the nation that blacks continued to have zero civil rights.

Fun fact: The next five governors of North Carolina had all participated in the coup and riot of 1898, including former governor Charles B. Aycock. Greensboro residents are distinctly familiar with that name.

The 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission released their report just five days after the Greenboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report went public. Considering that the events of ‘79 pale in comparrison to the massacre - coup d’tat of ‘98, and based on the often chilly, local conversation surrounding the GTRC report, I can only guess how many supposed “progressive” North Carolinians will view the recomendations of the State President of the NAACP, let alone the final recommendations to come later this year.

Not to sound like a PSA, but our collective, understood history too often defines our future actions in defining community. For those of you with limited time to investigate this issue, take a listen to this amazing State of Things broadcast, which dissects the history of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot, provides context to the political and cultural isses of the day and discusses how the NC State legislature might proceed from the soon-to-be published recommendations.

(hat tip: Andy)