Storyline · 1900–1908
In July 1900 Charles B. Aycock spoke for the suffrage amendment at a White Supremacy rally in Hillsborough. The amendment lost in Orange by a handful of votes and the opposing state ticket carried the county by a few votes, but Democrats won the legislative seats and county offices. Under the amendment, men who had not paid their poll tax could not vote, and by May 1902 Sheriff John K. Hughes reported 375 white and 500 Black men unpaid for 1901. The county elected the whole Democratic ticket in 1904, and in 1906 every Democrat won. In 1908 Orange went for Taft and sent the Republican Thomas E. Sparrow to the House over Samuel M. Gattis.
On July 12, 1900 Charles B. Aycock, the Democratic candidate for governor, spoke for two hours in the Hillsborough court house yard for the suffrage amendment, at a White Supremacy rally before a crowd put at 3,000 voters. On August 2 the official canvass showed the amendment losing in Orange by a handful of votes and the Fusion state ticket carrying the county by two to nine votes, while Democrats won the legislative seats and county offices, Samuel M. Gattis beating Thomas E. Sparrow for the House. By May 1902 Sheriff John K. Hughes reported that 375 white and 500 Black men had not paid their 1901 poll tax, which under the amendment barred them from voting that November. In August a resolution by Henry N. Brown Sr. at the Republican convention, against supporting anyone who accepted the amendment as final, was not acted on. In 1904 the county voted 900 to 558 for Parker over Roosevelt and elected the whole Democratic ticket, S. W. Andrews beating the Republican D. S. Miller for sheriff 805 to 704. In 1906 every Democrat won. On November 3, 1908 Orange gave William H. Taft 1,072 votes to William J. Bryan's 1,017 and sent the Republican Sparrow to the House over Gattis, 1,064 to 1,010, though Democrats kept most county offices.
Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.
People with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are about the sites and people its dated events name, those named most often first, so they may discuss the storyline only in part. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
George Attmore Sparrow wrote to his father, Thomas Sparrow, on 26 May 1862 from the Hillsborough Military Academy. The cadet says he would rather be serving his county in the war but will stay at school because his father wants him to.
Writing from the Hillsborough Military Academy on 11 July 1862, cadet George Attmore Sparrow tells his father, Thomas Sparrow, that his letter arrived with one from his mother and a newspaper. He also mentions a speech by Edward Stanly, the military governor appointed for eastern North Carolina.
Letter of 7 September 1862 to Thomas Sparrow from his son George Attmore Sparrow, a cadet at the Hillsborough Military Academy. News that Confederate troops had retaken Washington, North Carolina, has left him worried about his family, and he asks to be told of anything that happens.
Civil War letter of 9 November 1862 sent by cadet George Attmore Sparrow from the Hillsborough Military Academy to his father, Thomas Sparrow. He thanks him for twenty dollars and a bag of clothes and turns to the fighting in eastern North Carolina, passing on word of 1,600 Federal troops at Scotland Neck.
Biography of William C. Friday, president of the University of North Carolina system, by historian William A. Link, published by UNC Press in 1995 with the subtitle power, purpose, and American higher education. It covers Friday's career and the history of the university at Chapel Hill and statewide. Part of the Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection.
Albert Coates's own account of the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina, which he founded, subtitled 'out of a classroom in Chapel Hill' and published in 1981. The 303 pages trace the institute's history and its role in educating North Carolina's public officials.
William J. Billingsley's history of the Speaker Ban Law, the 1963 North Carolina statute that barred known Communists from speaking on state campuses, and the fight over it at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The subtitle sets the scope: race, politics and the public university in sixties North Carolina. It treats academic freedom, anti-communist movements and free speech in the state. University of Georgia Press, 1999, 308 pages with eight pages of plates.
Reviewed in Academe (2000), The American Historical Review (2001), The Journal of Southern History (2001), Journal of American History (2001), The Journal of Politics (2001).
Julian M. Pleasants and Augustus M. Burns III on the 1950 Democratic Senate primary in North Carolina, in which Frank Porter Graham, the former president of the University of North Carolina, lost to Willis Smith after a campaign marked by race-baiting. Primaries, elections and race relations in the state are its subjects. Published by UNC Press in 1990, 356 pages with illustrations.
Reviewed in Choice Reviews Online (1991), The American Historical Review (1991), Journal of American History (1991), The Journal of Southern History (1992).
Ruth Blackwelder's study of political and intellectual leadership in Orange County and North Carolina from 1752 to 1861, published in Charlotte by W. Loftin in 1961. Topics include state politics and government, intellectual life before the Civil War, and county genealogy. It runs 216 pages with illustrations and a bibliography. Part of the Wall Local History Collection.
Francis Nash's history of Hillsborough in colonial and Revolutionary times, first published in 1903 and reprinted in 1953 by Edwards & Broughton with an index and a sketch of the author. Topics include the Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771, the Revolution and local genealogy.
Howard E. Covington Jr.'s biography of Albert Coates (1896-1989), the law professor who founded the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina and led it through its early years. Topics include Coates as a law teacher and the institute's history as a center for the study of public administration in Chapel Hill. Published in 2010 by the University Library at Chapel Hill, 322 pages with 32 pages of plates.
Warren Ashby's biography of Frank Porter Graham (1886-1972), president of the University of North Carolina from 1930 to 1949 and later a United States senator. Published by Blair in 1981, x and 386 pages with sixteen leaves of plates and a bibliography.
Reviewed in The American Historical Review (1981), Journal of American History (1981).
Hugh Talmage Lefler and Paul W. Wager's history of Orange County across its first two centuries, 1752 to 1952, prepared for the county's bicentennial. It covers government and politics, biography and the county's families, and doubles as a genealogical reference. Published in Chapel Hill by the Orange Printshop in 1953, 389 pages with illustrations and an index; this copy is a later reprint.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1954).
Michael Thomas Smith's biography of Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick, the University of North Carolina chemistry professor dismissed in 1856 after he declared support for the antislavery presidential candidate John C. Fremont. Published by University of Delaware Press in 2003, 216 pages with illustrations. Topics include abolitionists and dissenters in North Carolina, the antislavery movement in the state, and the university's biography before 1962.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (2005).
The papers of Willie Person Mangum, 1792 to 1861, a lawyer, judge and United States senator from the part of Orange County that later became Durham County. Five volumes of correspondence published by the State Department of Archives and History beginning in 1950, arranged by date from 1807 to 1894, with illustrations, portraits and folding maps. A source for antebellum North Carolina and national politics, the Whig Party and the Mangum family.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1951), Journal of American History (1951), The Journal of Southern History (1953), Journal of American History (1953), The Journal of Southern History (1954), The Journal of Southern History (1955), The Journal of Southern History (1957), Journal of American History (1957), The American Historical Review (1957).
Address by Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough on 24 August 1924, marking the parish's hundredth anniversary. Printed in Durham in 1925 at the vestry's order, with a foreword by the rector. Cheshire discusses George Micklejohn, William Mercer Green and Moses Ashley Curtis.
Each dated event above names its source, the place to start. For finding more on an event across newspapers, records and histories, see the research guide Follow an event across several accounts. Ask at the North Carolina Room of the Orange County Public Library for help with local sources.
Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “Orange County's party politics under the suffrage amendment, 1900–1908.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/politics-suffrage-amendment-storyline-1900/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
