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7 <br /> 1 A motion was made by Commissioner Richards, seconded by Commissioner Hamilton, <br /> 2 to approve and authorize the Chair to sign the resolution. <br /> 3 <br /> 4 VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br /> 5 <br /> 6 Chair Price asked the Clerk to prepare a cover letter to send the historical marker <br /> 7 resolution. <br /> 8 <br /> 9 b. Resolution Apologizing for Past Racial Terror Lynching <br /> 10 The Board considered approving a resolution acknowledging criminal acts of racial terror <br /> 11 lynching that occurred across the United States in the aftermath of the Civil War and from <br /> 12 Reconstruction through the middle of the twentieth century, and specifically acts that occurred in <br /> 13 Orange County; apologizing to all victims of racial terror lynching in Orange County perpetrated <br /> 14 or condoned by past Orange County elected officials; and expressing deepest sympathies to the <br /> 15 families and descendants for all women and men who were murdered by racial terror lynching, <br /> 16 and for the denial of their dignity and basic human rights. <br /> 17 <br /> 18 BACKGROUND: Racial terror lynching was known widely to occur across the United States in <br /> 19 the aftermath of the Civil War and from Reconstruction through the middle of the twentieth <br /> 20 century. These criminal acts were committed against numerous named and unnamed <br /> 21 individuals and claimed the lives of more than 120 Black people in North Carolina. Four such <br /> 22 criminal acts specifically known to have taken place in Orange County occurred against Daniel <br /> 23 Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Cyrus Guy, Wright Woods and Manly McCauley. <br /> 24 <br /> 25 BOCC Chair Renee Price and Commissioner Anna Richards drafted the proposed Board <br /> 26 resolution. The resolution acknowledges the criminal acts of racial terror lynching that occurred <br /> 27 in Orange County; apologizes to all victims of racial terror lynching in Orange County <br /> 28 perpetrated or condoned by past Orange County elected officials; and expresses deepest <br /> 29 sympathies to the families and descendants for all women and men who were murdered by <br /> 30 racial terror lynching. <br /> 31 <br /> 32 Chair Price read the following Resolution: <br /> 33 <br /> 34 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS <br /> 35 RESOLUTION APOLOGIZING FOR PAST RACIAL TERROR LYNCHING <br /> 36 <br /> 37 WHEREAS, racial terror lynching was known widely to occur across the United States in the <br /> 38 aftermath of the Civil War and from Reconstruction through the middle of the twentieth century; <br /> 39 and <br /> 40 <br /> 41 WHEREAS, lynching became a practice predominantly inflicted upon Black or African American <br /> 42 men, women and children by white individuals, vigilante mobs and law enforcement officers —to <br /> 43 instill fear and to thwart the social, economic and political advancement of Black people; and <br /> 44 <br /> 45 WHEREAS, on August 7, 1869, Daniel Morrow and Jefferson Morrow, African American <br /> 46 farmworkers near Hillsborough, were accused of barn burning and insulting women, and <br /> 47 lynched by a mob that left a note identifying themselves as the Ku Klux Klan; and <br /> 48 <br /> 49 WHEREAS, on September 12, 1869, Wright Woods, alleged to have made certain remarks to a <br /> 50 white girl, was abducted by four white men, killed and found in Little River with a note attached <br /> 51 to his foot that read, "if the law will not protect virtue, the rope will"; and <br />