HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 04-18-2023; 8-e - Resolution Apologizing for Past Racial Terror Lynching 1
ORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: April 18, 2023
Action Agenda
Item No. 8-e
SUBJECT: Resolution Apologizing for Past Racial Terror Lynching
DEPARTMENT: Asset Management Services
ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT:
Draft Resolution James Williams, Orange County
Community Remembrance Coalition
Commissioner Sally Greene, 919-245-
2130
PURPOSE: To approve a resolution:
1) acknowledging criminal acts of racial terror lynching that occurred across the United States
in the aftermath of the Civil War and from Reconstruction through the middle of the
twentieth century, and specifically acts that occurred in Orange County;
2) apologizing to all victims of racial terror lynching in Orange County perpetrated or
condoned by past Orange County elected officials; and
3) expressing deepest sympathies to the families and descendants for all women and men
who were murdered by racial terror lynching, and for the denial of their dignity and basic
human rights.
BACKGROUND: Racial terror lynching was known widely to occur across the United States in
the aftermath of the Civil War and from Reconstruction through the middle of the twentieth century.
These criminal acts were committed against numerous named and unnamed individuals, and
claimed the lives of more than 120 Black people in North Carolina. Such criminal acts specifically
known to have taken place in Orange County occurred against Daniel Morrow, Washington
Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Cyrus Guy, Wright Woods and Manly McCauley.
The Orange County Remembrance Coalition, in communication with Commissioner Sally Greene,
developed the attached draft resolution. The resolution acknowledges the criminal acts of racial
terror lynching that occurred in Orange County; apologizes to all victims of racial terror lynching
in Orange County perpetrated or condoned by past Orange County elected officials; and
expresses deepest sympathies to the families and descendants for all women and men who were
murdered by racial terror lynching.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact associated with consideration of the
resolution.
2
SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPACT: The following Orange County Social Justice Goal is applicable to
this item:
• GOAL: FOSTER A COMMUNITY CULTURE THAT REJECTS OPPRESSION AND
INEQUITY
The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race or color;
religious or philosophical beliefs; sex, gender or sexual orientation; national origin or ethnic
background; age; military service; disability; and familial, residential or economic status.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: There are no Orange County Environmental Responsibility Goal
impacts associated with this item.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board approve and authorize the
Chair to sign the resolution:
1) acknowledging criminal acts of racial terror lynching that occurred across the United States
in the aftermath of the Civil War and from Reconstruction through the middle of the
twentieth century, and specifically acts that occurred in Orange County;
2) apologizing to all victims of racial terror lynching in Orange County perpetrated or
condoned by past Orange County elected officials; and
3) expressing deepest sympathies to the families and descendants for all women and men
who were murdered by racial terror lynching, and for the denial of their dignity and basic
human rights.
RES-2023-030 DRAFT 3
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
RESOLUTION APOLOGIZING FOR PAST RACIAL TERROR LYNCHING
WHEREAS, racial terror lynching occurred with startling frequency across the United States in the
aftermath of the Civil War and from Reconstruction through the middle of the twentieth century; and
WHEREAS, lynching became a practice predominantly inflicted upon Black or African American men,
women and children by white individuals, vigilante mobs and law enforcement officers — to instill fear and
to thwart the social, economic and political advancement of Black people; and
WHEREAS, on August 7, 1869, 19-year-old Washington Morrow and his older brother Nelson, both of
whom were African American farmworkers, were seized from the Hillsborough jail by a mob of masked
klansmen, carried south of town, and then shot, with Washington dying from his wounds a few days later;
and
WHEREAS, on September 6, 1869, Wright Malone, a Black farmer who was working alongside his father
at the family's coal kiln,was abducted by four masked white men and hung near the banks of the Little River;
and
WHEREAS, on October 14, 1869, Thomas Jefferson Morrow (whose son, Washington Morrow, was
murdered two months earlier) and his brother-in-law Daniel Morrow, both of whom were Black farmers
working near Hillsborough, were pulled from their family homes by a masked mob of Ku Klux Klan riders
and hung; and
WHEREAS, on December 2, 1869, Cyrus Guy—a 20-year-old Afro-Indigenous farmer who had grown up
in a family emancipated long before the Civil War—was seized from his family farm by a mob of klansmen
and hung in a public site near the intersection of Faucette Mill Road and Lebanon Road; and
WHEREAS, on or about October 30,1898, Manly McCauley, an 18-year-old Black man, was seized by a
mob of white men, accused of eloping with a married white woman, and lynched from a dogwood tree near
current day Hatch Road and Old Greensboro Road, and the four men tried for the lynching were acquitted;
and
WHEREAS, in denial of their constitutional rights to a fair trial, and without the opportunity to present
their defense, the afore-mentioned men were brutally executed; and
WHEREAS, Orange County elected officials failed to safeguard Washington Morrow and failed to hold
accountable the killers of the six racial terror lynching victims;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Orange County Board of Commissioners does hereby
acknowledge that criminal acts of racial terror lynching were committed against numerous named and
unnamed individuals, including Washington Morrow, Wright Malone, Daniel Morrow, Thomas Jefferson
Morrow, Cyrus Guy, and Manly McCauley; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Orange County Board of Commissioners now apologizes to all
victims of racial terror lynching in Orange County perpetrated or condoned by past Orange County elected
officials; and
BE IT MOREOVER RESOLVED that the Orange County Board of County Commissioners herewith
expresses our deepest sympathies to the families and descendants for all women and men who were
murdered by racial terror lynching, and for the denial of their dignity and basic human rights.
This the 18th day of April, 2023.
Jamezetta Bedford, Chair
Orange County Board of Commissioners