Storyline

Racial-terror lynchings in Orange County

Name: Racial-terror lynchings in Orange County
Start: 1868
End: 1988
Location: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

Six people are documented as lynched in Orange County: Washington Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, Daniel Morrow, Wright Malone and Cyrus Guy in 1869, and Manly McCauley in 1898. The county’s 2022 resolution apologized and approved markers without naming them.

In briefSix people are documented as lynched in Orange County: Washington Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, Daniel Morrow, Wright Malone and Cyrus Guy in 1869, and Manly McCauley in 1898. Sworn testimony before Congress in 1871 gives the same count for 1869, four men hanged and one shot (Josiah Turner Jr.), or five Black men killed (constable W. G. Turrentine), though names differ: the Senate committee's list and two Orange witnesses name a man called Wood, hanged east of Hillsborough, and two sources a William Guy, who may be Cyrus Guy. In September 2022 the county commissioners apologized for racial-terror lynchings and approved markers, citing five cases without naming the victims.

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8 works about Racial-terror lynchings in Orange County are indexed here. 1 held at OCPL →

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Episodes in this history, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineMorrow family killings, 1869Reconstruction-era violence against the Morrow family StorylineLynching of Manly McCauley, 1898The Carrboro-area lynching now marked by the town

Other events in this storyline, in date order. See these 41 dated events in the chronology →

late 1867 or early 1868 The White Brotherhood, a Ku Klux order, appears in Orange County The first Klan-type order to reach North Carolina, the White Brotherhood, set up camps including one at Hillsborough. Its Orange County chief was Colonel Joseph C. Webb, followed by Frederick N. Strudwick. People: Frederick N. Strudwick, J. Cheshire Webb Place: HillsboroughLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 116
1869 to early 1870 Disguised men shave the heads of white women in Orange County Before March 1870, disguised men in Orange County shaved the heads of some white women and otherwise mistreated them, according to the testimony of Dr. Pride Jones before the Joint Select Committee on June 5, 1871. Jones gave no names or places and said he knew of no white men attacked. People: Pride Jones Place: Orange CountyU.S. Congress, Joint Select Committee on the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, Testimony: North Carolina (1872), p. 4
summer 1869 Three barns burn on one night after a Black tenant family is evicted in southwestern Orange After William M. Jones had a Black tenant family turned out by a writ of possession, served by officer James F. Minor with Jesse W. Morrow helping, the barns of all three men, newly filled with wheat, burned within the same ten minutes one night after harvest, according to George Laws, clerk of the superior court, testifying before the Senate committee on February 15, 1871. Laws said evidence in his court showed Jeff Morrow, a Black man, had meant to have satisfaction after harvest, and that the disguised men who took two prisoners from the Hillsborough jail and hanged others acted over these burnings; constable W. G. Turrentine counted two barns, and said the one prisoner tried on the charge was acquitted. Two Alamance men who admitted White Brotherhood membership, W. S. Bradshaw and George S. Rogers, also described barns burned in one night in that neighborhood near the Alamance line, Rogers placing it in 1868, and Josiah Turner Jr. testified that the fires came just after harvest. People: George Laws Place: southwestern Orange County, near the Chatham and Alamance lines · Also named: William M. Jones, James F. Minor, Jesse W. Morrow, Jeff Morrow, Josiah Turner Jr., W. G. Turrentine · Also mentions: Hillsborough jailU.S. Senate, Select Committee, Report on the Alleged Outrages in the Southern States (1871), p. 191
August 7–October 14, 1869 Washington Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow and Daniel Morrow are lynched Early on August 7, 1869, about 100 disguised white men took Washington Morrow and his brother Nelson from the Hillsborough jail, where they were held on barn-burning charges, and shot Washington as they fled; he died of the wound. On October 14 a mob hanged their father, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, and their uncle, Daniel Morrow. People: Washington Morrow, Daniel Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow Place: Countywide · Also mentions: Hillsborough jailJames Madison University, Memorializing Racial Terror: The Lynching of Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Daniel Morrow
August 1869 Klansmen from Chatham County stone November Caldwell's house by mistake A Ku Klux party from Chatham County rode into Chapel Hill after Ben Edwards, a man denounced in Chatham, and stoned the house of November Caldwell, taking it for his. Village youths who followed the riders were ordered off; Solomon Pool went to Raleigh for militia, but the local magistrates would not sign a petition for it. People: Solomon Pool Place: November Caldwell's house, Chapel Hill · Also named: November Caldwell, Ben EdwardsHope Summerell Chamberlain, Old Days in Chapel Hill (1926), scan p. 196
summer 1869 Klansmen take two Black prisoners from jail and shoot one of them A few nights after three barns burned in late July 1869, two Black men accused of another barn burning were taken from jail. One was let go; the other was shot and died. Place: Orange CountyLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 118
August 1869, the morning after the jail raid Orange sheriff's posse tracks the Hillsborough jail raiders' horses toward Alamance On the morning after disguised men broke open the Orange County jail and shot two Black prisoners, the sheriff summoned Hillsborough men to follow the raiders' horse tracks from the bridge where the prisoners were shot. About three miles out, where the road forked, the tracks split toward Chatham and toward the Oaks in Alamance; Empson Moore counted forty or fifty tracks and picked up a stuffed cloth horn with blood on it, and Haywood Beverley followed twelve or fifteen riders about ten miles, to within two miles of Webb's store in Alamance. Both men described the pursuit at Governor Holden's impeachment trial on March 8, 1871. Place: Hillsborough and the roads southwest toward Alamance and Chatham counties · Also named: Empson Moore, Haywood Beverley · Also mentions: Orange County jailTrial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 2, p. 1849
September 6, 1869 Wright Malone is abducted and lynched near Little River On the night of September 6, 1869, four mounted men took Wright Malone, a young Black farmer, from the coal kiln he was burning with his father near Little River in eastern Orange County. A neighbor found his body hanging from a tree on September 12, and the coroner concluded the killing had been planned in advance. People: Wright Malone Place: Little River, eastern Orange County · Also named: Squire MaloneOrange County Community Remembrance Coalition: Those We Honor
October 20, 1869 Governor Holden warns Orange County it may be declared in insurrection Holden's proclamation of October 20, 1869, named Lenoir, Jones, Orange and Chatham counties and said that in Orange the jail had been forced, two Black prisoners taken out and shot, and three other Black men hanged. He warned that he would declare those counties in a state of insurrection and use the whole power of the state if the violence continued. People: William W. Holden Place: Orange County · Also mentions: Orange and Chatham countiesDigitalNC: Goldsboro Daily Messenger, October 25, 1869, page 2
About November 29, 1869 Cyrus Guy is lynched by a masked mob in western Orange County A masked mob seized Cyrus Guy, a 24-year-old Afro-Indigenous farmer from a free family of color, and hanged him from a tree on the High Rock Road near the Alamance County line, above the county poorhouse. The Hillsborough Recorder reported that an inquest held under Sheriff Turner found out nothing, and Ben Johnson recalled in 1937 that the body was left hanging for four days. People: Cyrus Guy Place: High Rock Road, near the Alamance County line, Orange County · Also named: Ben JohnsonOrange County Community Remembrance Coalition: Those We Honor
March 8, 1870 Disguised men whip residents of the county poorhouse Men in disguise entered the poorhouse at night and whipped several of the men and women living there. On March 10 the commissioners offered a $200 reward for the attackers, over the written protest of commissioner W. N. Patterson, who defended the raiders' motives. People: William N. Patterson Place: Orange County poorhouseSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 195
March to April 1870 Orange County Klansmen agree to disband after Pride Jones carries the governor's offer Starting on March 8, 1870, when he rode eight miles into the country, Captain Pride Jones went to men he suspected of leading the Klan in Orange and told them, on Governor Holden's word passed through John W. Norwood, that past offenses would be overlooked if they disbanded. By his sworn account in June 1871, several said they were tired of it, the klans disbanded within about four weeks, and after four to six weeks he wrote Holden that the county was quiet. People: Pride Jones, John Wall Norwood, William W. Holden Place: Orange CountyU.S. Congress, Joint Select Committee on the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, Testimony: North Carolina (1872), p. 1

Show all 41 dated events

January 31, 1871 Hillsborough constable describes Orange County Klan killings to a U.S. Senate committee W. G. Turrentine, a Hillsborough constable, told the Senate select committee in Washington that five Black men had been killed in Orange County and many people whipped, some for voting Republican. He described how, in August 1869, 75 to 100 disguised men forced the Hillsborough jail and shot a prisoner held on a barn-burning charge, who died. Place: U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. · Also named: W. G. Turrentine · Also mentions: Hillsborough jailInternet Archive: Report on the Alleged Outrages in the Southern States, Senate Select Committee, March 10, 1871
January 1871 Disguised men calling themselves Red Birds whip four people near Hillsborough Disguised men who called themselves Red Birds and dressed in red whipped two women and two young men of about twenty at a house about three miles from Hillsborough, tore off its roof, knocked down the chimney and set it on fire, according to the testimony of Hillsborough constable W. G. Turrentine before the Senate committee on January 31, 1871. Turrentine, who saw the wrecked house when he went to make arrests, said it was thought to have been aimed at a disorderly house. George Laws, testifying on February 15, described what seems to be the same affair five or six miles from town as neighborhood fathers breaking up a disorderly house, with the boys paddled and the roof torn off, and said it was not the Ku Klux. The one man arrested on Turrentine's warrant was discharged by a magistrate after his sister-in-law and a Dr. William Strudwick swore he had been too drunk that evening to sit his horse. People: George Laws Place: about three miles from Hillsborough, Orange County · Also named: W. G. Turrentine, William StrudwickSearch the index · U.S. Senate, Select Committee, Report on the Alleged Outrages in the Southern States (1871), p. 44
January–March 1871 U.S. Senate committee hears Orange County testimony on Klan violence A Senate select committee created on January 19, 1871 took testimony in Washington on Klan violence in North Carolina. Orange County witnesses, including Hillsborough constable W. G. Turrentine, court clerk George Laws and editor Josiah Turner Jr., described the 1869 jail raid, hangings and whippings in the county. The committee reported on March 10, 1871. People: George Laws, Josiah Turner Jr. Place: Countywide · Also named: W. G. TurrentineU.S. Senate: Report on the Alleged Outrages in the Southern States by the Select Committee of the Senate, March 10, 1871 (Internet Archive)
February 15, 1871 Clerk of court George Laws testifies on Orange County before the Senate committee George Laws of Hillsborough, clerk of the Orange superior court and judge of probate, testified before the Senate select committee in Washington on February 15, 1871. A Conservative, he described the jail raid and three hangings of Black men, said no one had been brought to justice for them because no evidence could be had, credited the Ku Klux with checking thefts by freedpeople after the war, and said the county had been quiet for eighteen months and that a Black man could get justice in its courts. The committee majority quoted him as proof that Klan crimes in Orange went unpunished. People: George Laws Place: Washington, D.C.U.S. Senate, Select Committee, Report on the Alleged Outrages in the Southern States (1871), p. 190
March 2, 1871 Ned Strowd of Orange testifies that disguised men whipped him in Alamance Ned Strowd, a Black man then living in Orange County with a Mr. Mebane, testified for Holden's defense that about three weeks before Christmas 1869 sixteen to eighteen disguised men called him out of his house on William Thompson's place in Alamance, broke his gun across a tree and made his family carry their goods out into the yard. They whipped him twenty to thirty licks while he hugged a tree and threatened to come back and kill him if he told. Place: North Carolina Senate chamber, Raleigh · Also named: Ned Strowd, William ThompsonTrial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 2, p. 1454
March 8, 1871 Three Black witnesses from Orange testify at Holden's trial on the Morrow hanging and the jail raid Anderson Morrow, who had lived on Cane Creek half a mile from the Orange line, testified that about twenty-five horsemen passed his house toward Orange around nine or ten o'clock on the night Jefferson Morrow was hanged and came back before day, and that he saw many fresh horse tracks on the Mount Willing road the morning after the Hillsborough jail raid, though he heard no one pass that night. Empson Moore and Haywood Beverley of Hillsborough then told of following the raiders' tracks with the sheriff. Holden's counsel offered the testimony to tie the Orange killings to Alamance men; the managers objected that the roads led elsewhere, and the presiding officer ruled that the jail raid was not yet connected to Alamance, so Moore was withdrawn. Place: North Carolina Senate chamber, Raleigh · Also named: Anderson Morrow, Empson Moore, Haywood Beverley · Also mentions: Hillsborough jailTrial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina (1871), vol. 2, p. 1840
June 5, 1871 Dr. Pride Jones of Hillsborough testifies before Congress on the Orange County Klan Dr. Pride Jones of Hillsborough, the militia captain Governor Holden had sent against the Klan in Orange, testified before the Joint Select Committee in Washington on June 5, 1871. He said four or five Black men had been hanged and several people whipped by disguised men in the county before his commission, that no one had been tried for it, and that the Klansmen were mostly Democrats who had disbanded in the spring of 1870. People: Pride Jones Place: Washington, D.C. (testimony on Orange County)U.S. Congress, Joint Select Committee on the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, Testimony: North Carolina (1872), p. 1
June 5, 1871 The congressional committee splits over making Pride Jones name Orange Klansmen Asked on June 5, 1871 to name the Orange County men he had approached as leaders of the Klan, Dr. Pride Jones refused, saying he had dealt with them in confidence as Governor Holden's agent. The Joint Select Committee divided 3 to 3 on a motion to excuse him and postponed the question, and no names appear in the rest of his testimony. People: Pride Jones Place: Washington, D.C. (testimony on Orange County)U.S. Congress, Joint Select Committee on the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, Testimony: North Carolina (1872), p. 8
June or early July 1871 A federal commissioner tells Congress the Klan is still at work in southern Orange A. Webster Shaffer, the U.S. commissioner at Raleigh who heard Ku Klux cases, testified before the Joint Select Committee in mid-1871 that disguised night riding continued in the lower part of Orange County, one of eight or ten counties from which complaints still reached him. He said the order had been campaigning in Orange since 1868 and that William A. Graham of Hillsborough could stop it there but tolerated it by saying nothing, though he did not think Graham a member. His account differs from Pride Jones's statement that the Orange Klan disbanded in the spring of 1870. People: William A. Graham, Pride Jones Place: southern Orange County · Also named: A. Webster ShafferU.S. Congress, Joint Select Committee on the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, Testimony: North Carolina (1872), p. 41
June to September 23, 1871 The congressional Ku Klux committee reports F. N. Strudwick for failing to appear F. N. Strudwick of Hillsborough was summoned in June 1871 to appear in Washington before the congressional committee investigating the Ku Klux. The joint congressional committee on the Ku Klux, meeting in Washington, reported F. N. Strudwick of Hillsborough and others who had been summoned but did not appear, asking the Senate to issue warrants for them as in contempt of Congress. People: Frederick N. Strudwick Place: Capitol, Washington, D.C.Hillsborough Recorder, September 27, 1871, p. 2
September 23, 1871 William L. Saunders of Chapel Hill refuses to answer the congressional Klan committee Called before the joint committee on affairs in the insurrectionary states, Saunders, whom the book names as head of the Invisible Empire in North Carolina, declined to answer 53 questions about the Ku Klux. People: William L. Saunders Place: Chapel HillLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 117-118 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, September 27, 1871, p. 2
early December 1871 Daniel Latta of Orange swears he did not write the letter accusing F. N. Strudwick Daniel Latta, a Black man of Orange County, swore before Commissioner Best in Raleigh that he never wrote or caused to be written the letter read in the House saying F. N. Strudwick, in disguise, had whipped him, and that no one had struck him since the surrender. People: Frederick N. Strudwick Place: Raleigh · Also named: Daniel LattaHillsborough Recorder, December 13, 1871, p. 2
about December 1871 Five Orange men arrested on Judge Tourgee's order slip away from the officer Five Orange men arrested on Judge Tourgee's order during the Alamance court slipped away from the officer one at a time; a report reached the judge that disguised men had taken them, which the paper denied. People: Albion W. Tourgee Place: Orange CountyHillsborough Recorder, January 3, 1872, p. 3
October 26, 1898 Manly McCauley and Maggie Brewer leave the Brewer farm west of Chapel Hill On a Wednesday afternoon Maggie Brewer, wife of the farmer Milton Brewer, left the family farm four miles west of Chapel Hill with Manly McCauley, an eighteen-year-old Black farmhand who had worked there about a year. A posse of eighteen men led by her husband set out after them on Friday and overtook the pair beyond Jonesboro. People: Manly McCauley Place: Orange County · Also named: Maggie Brewer, Milton BrewerDigitalNC: The News and Observer (Raleigh), November 17, 1898, page 5
Late October 1898 Manly McCauley is lynched near Carrboro Manly McCauley, an 18-year-old Black farmhand, left Milton Brewer's farm west of Chapel Hill with Brewer's wife on October 26, 1898. A posse caught them beyond Jonesboro, and on the way back masked men took McCauley from the officer holding him and hanged him. His body was found on November 6, about three miles west of Chapel Hill. People: Manly McCauley Place: Carrboro · Also named: Milton BrewerJames Madison University, Memorializing Racial Terror: The Lynching of Manly McCauley · Also: The News (Chapel Hill), November 4, 1898, p. 1
November 6, 1898 Manly McCauley's body is found hanging from a tree three miles west of Chapel Hill A farmer, Thomas Myrick, found McCauley's body hanging from a bent dogwood beside the public road some three miles west of Chapel Hill, a week after masked men had taken him from the officer bringing him back. Coroner Jordan was telegraphed to hold an inquest. People: Manly McCauley Place: Orange County · Also named: Thomas MyrickDigitalNC: Charlotte Daily Observer, November 8, 1898, page 4
November 7, 1898 W. A. Guthrie urges Chapel Hill voters to the polls for the white supremacy ticket the day after McCauley's body is found With McCauley's body found the previous afternoon, Major W. A. Guthrie spoke at Chapel Hill on election eve, appealing to white voters to cast their ballots for the party of white supremacy; A. L. Brooks, the Democratic candidate for solicitor, followed him. The state election was held the next day. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: William A. Guthrie, A. L. Brooks, W. A. GuthrieDigitalNC: Charlotte Daily Observer, November 8, 1898, page 4
November 1898 Jesse King, the officer who held McCauley, is tried and acquitted at Hillsborough King, returning alone to Chapel Hill with his prisoner, was met by masked men who overpowered him and hanged McCauley from a dogwood. Tried at Hillsboro for permitting the prisoner to be taken from him by the mob, he was acquitted; the News and Observer used the trial to confirm that the lynching had in fact happened. People: Manly McCauley Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Jesse KingDigitalNC: The News and Observer (Raleigh), November 17, 1898, page 5
May 20, 1937 Ben Johnson, born enslaved near Hillsborough, recalls the Klan lynching of Cyrus Guy for a WPA interviewer Interviewed at 85 in Hecktown, Durham, by Federal Writers' Project worker Mary A. Hicks, Johnson said the Ku Klux came for Cy Guy a hundred strong, tried him in the woods and hanged him over the road. He said nobody would touch the body for four days, until the sheriff took it down. People: Cyrus Guy Place: Orange County · Also named: Ben Johnson, Mary A. HicksSearch the index · Library of Congress: Federal Writers' Project Slave Narrative Project, Vol. 11, North Carolina, Part 2 (full text)
March 28, 1964 A Klan rally gathers at the post office fast and a UNC student is struck On the fast's seventh day a Ku Klux Klan rally drew onlookers to the Franklin Street post office, where textile worker Milford Cordell Hill of Gold Hill struck UNC senior Louis S. Calhoun Jr. and knocked off his glasses; police officers who saw it swore out complaints. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Louis S. Calhoun Jr., Milford Cordell Hill · Also mentions: Franklin Street post officeThe Daily Tar Heel, April 10, 1964, p. 1
June 27, 1964 A cross is burned beside the Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery A large wooden cross was burned on a vacant lot next to the Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery on Durham Boulevard shortly after 8 p.m., about the time the outcome of the governor's runoff primary became clear. Passersby saw it, but no report reached the sheriff's office or the Chapel Hill police. Place: Durham Boulevard beside the Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel Hill Memorial CemeteryThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 2, 1964, p. 1
June 1964 The United Klans hold a rally and cross burning east of Chapel Hill About 700 people attended the first United Knights of the Ku Klux Klan rally of the summer in Orange County, two miles east of Chapel Hill on the old Durham Highway, with a cross burning and speeches. At a Klan representative's request Sheriff C. D. Knight and some deputies stood by outside the site. Place: old Durham Highway, two miles east of Chapel Hill · Also named: C. D. KnightThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 30, 1964, p. 12
August 1, 1964 The Ku Klux Klan holds a cross-burning rally near Hillsborough The United Klans held their second Orange County rally of the summer near the Interstate 85 and N.C. 86 crossroads a mile east of Hillsborough, burning a cross while speakers addressed the crowd. Mailed notices had invited 'the white public' and the press and billed the Grand Dragon of North Carolina. Place: near Interstate 85 and N.C. 86, east of HillsboroughThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 6, 1964, p. 1
July 22, 1965 The Ku Klux Klan calls a rally in a field across from the General Sherman Restaurant Robed Klansmen handed out bills in Hillsborough for a night rally at Interstate 85 and US 70, where scores of hooded members were expected in a field across from the General Sherman Restaurant. Place: Interstate 85 and US 70, near the Durham County line · Also mentions: General Sherman RestaurantThe Daily Tar Heel, July 22, 1965, p. 4
October 1965 A House committee names the Sportsman's Lakeside Lodge as the Klan unit in Orange County The House Un-American Activities Committee, investigating the Ku Klux Klan, named the Sportsman's Lakeside Lodge as the Klan organization in Orange County. Sheriff C. B. Knight told the Daily Tar Heel that three Klan meetings had been held in the county recently. Place: Sportsman's Lakeside Lodge, NC Highway 57 north of Hillsborough · Also named: C. B. KnightThe Daily Tar Heel, October 22, 1965, p. 1
by October 21, 1965 Sheriff reports three recent Klan meetings in Orange County Orange County Sheriff C. B. Knight told the Daily Tar Heel that three Ku Klux Klan meetings had been held recently in the county, the first of them in Chapel Hill, and that he had recognized a few local men at the rallies. He said he had no idea how many Klan members lived in the county and would not investigate them unless they broke the law. Place: Orange County · Also named: C. B. KnightThe Daily Tar Heel, October 22, 1965, p. 1
November 2019 The Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition collects soil at the site of Manly McCauley's lynching On a Saturday morning on Carl Drive, McCauley family members, clergy and coalition members gathered at the spot where he is believed to have been hanged; elders of Hickory Grove Missionary Baptist Church blessed soil that was jarred for the family. A program with the Equal Justice Initiative followed at the church. People: Manly McCauley Place: Chapel HillNews of Orange County: Orange County Community Rememberance Coalition holds ceremony to honor Manly McCauley (November 20, 2019)
April 29, 2023 Soil collection ceremony at the Orange County courthouse honors Cyrus Guy and four other 1869 lynching victims The Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition held a soil collection ceremony for Washington Morrow, Wright Malone, Daniel Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow and Cyrus Guy, all lynched in 1869. One jar for each man was to go to the Equal Justice Initiative's memorial collection in Montgomery, Alabama, and a second jar was to stay in Orange County. People: Cyrus Guy, Daniel Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Washington Morrow, Wright Malone, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, Renée Price Place: Orange County Courthouse, HillsboroughSearch the index · Chapelboro: 'Do Not Forget Us': Soil Collection Ceremony Held for 5 Orange County Lynching Victims (May 1, 2023)
February 18, 2024 Carrboro unveils a marker honoring Manly McCauley On February 18, 2024, the Town of Carrboro, the Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition and the Equal Justice Initiative unveiled a historical marker beside Carrboro Town Hall for Manly McCauley. McCauley, an 18-year-old Black farmhand, was lynched by a white mob in 1898 near Hatch Road and Old Greensboro Road, west of Carrboro. People: Manly McCauley Place: Carrboro · Also mentions: Carrboro Town HallChapelboro: Carrboro, Remembrance Coalition Unveil Marker to Manly McCauley 125 Years After His Lynching

Places in this history

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

Orange County jail, Hillsborough Public buildings and services · Hillsborough · 4 events here
Chapel Hill Post Office and Peace and Justice Plaza Public buildings and services · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough Public buildings and services · Hillsborough · 1 event here
Orange County poorhouse (County Home) Public buildings and services · Hillsborough · 1 event here

All places and the county map →

Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Orange County, N.C. Road Records

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2008

Three volumes of historic Orange County road records compiled by Stewart E. Dunaway and self-published through Lulu.com in 2008, with maps. The documents, reproduced as facsimiles and sometimes transcribed, include petitions for new roads, requests for road upkeep, bridge records and papers explaining why roads were rerouted. Road petitions name the householders along a route. The third volume also gathers records connected with Cyrus Guy's lynching in Orange County in 1869.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Lynching -- North Carolina -- Orange County.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 388.1 ORANGE NC Cardinal Durham

John H. Wheeler (1806-1882) Diaries and Papers

Wheeler, John H. · 1854

Diaries and papers of John Hill Wheeler of Hertford County, historian, legislator, state treasurer from 1843 to 1845 and minister to Nicaragua from 1854 to 1857. The diaries, a broken run from 1854 to 1882, follow his social and political life in Washington, D.C. University commencements at Chapel Hill and his work on North Carolina history also come up. State Archives of North Carolina, MfP.51.