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RES-2022-051 3
<br /> ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
<br /> RESOLUTION APOLOGIZING FOR PAST RACIAL TERROR LYNCHING
<br /> WHEREAS, racial terror lynching was known widely to occur across the United States in the aftermath of
<br /> the Civil War and from Reconstruction through the middle of the twentieth century; and
<br /> WHEREAS, lynching became a practice predominantly inflicted upon Black or African American men,
<br /> women and children by white individuals, vigilante mobs and law enforcement officers — to instill fear and
<br /> to thwart the social, economic and political advancement of Black people; and
<br /> WHEREAS,on August 7, 1869,Daniel Morrow and Jefferson Morrow,African American farmworkers near
<br /> Hillsborough, were accused of barn burning and insulting women, and lynched by a mob that left a note
<br /> identifying themselves as the Ku Klux Klan; and
<br /> WHEREAS, on September 12, 1869, Wright Woods, alleged to have made certain remarks to a white girl,
<br /> was abducted by four white men, killed and found in Little River with a note attached to his foot that read,
<br /> "if the law will not protect virtue, the rope will"; and
<br /> WHEREAS, on December 2, 1869, Cyrus Guy, allegedly having made a snide remark to a white woman,
<br /> was taken by a mob and left hanging from a tree at the intersection of Faucette Mill Road and Lebanon
<br /> Road as a sign for other "mulattos" in the area to know their place; and
<br /> WHEREAS, on or about October 30,1898, Manly McCauley, an 18-year-old Black man, was seized by a
<br /> mob of white men, accused of eloping with a married white woman, and lynched from a dogwood tree near
<br /> current day Hatch Road and Old Greensboro Road, and the four men tried for the lynching were acquitted;
<br /> and
<br /> WHEREAS, in denial of their constitution rights to a fair trial, and without the opportunity to present their
<br /> defense, the afore-mentioned men were brutally executed; and
<br /> WHEREAS no evidence exists to indicate that elected officials of Orange County — i.e., sheriff,
<br /> commissioners, or judges — did anything to prevent these lynchings, or to prosecute those who performed,
<br /> aided or abetted these actions, or were otherwise complicity in this racial terror; and
<br /> WHEREAS, in contravention of their responsibilities to protect and serve all the people of Orange County,
<br /> the aforementioned public servants violated their oaths of office;
<br /> NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Orange County Board of Commissioners does hereby
<br /> acknowledge that criminal acts of racial terror lynching were committed against numerous named and
<br /> unnamed individuals, including Daniel Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Cyrus Guy, Wright Woods and Manly
<br /> McCauley; and
<br /> BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Orange County Board of Commissioners now apologies to all
<br /> victims of racial terror lynching in Orange County perpetrated or condoned by past Orange County elected
<br /> officials; and
<br /> BE IT MOREOVER RESOLVED that the Orange County Board of County Commissioners herewith
<br /> expresses our deepest sympathies to the families and descendants for all women and men who were
<br /> murdered by racial terror lynching, and for the denial of their dignity and basic human rights.
<br /> This the 201h day of September, 2022.
<br /> Renee A. Price, Chair
<br /> Orange County Board of Commissioners
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