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A motion was made by Commissioner Richards, seconded by Commissioner Hamilton, <br /> to approve and authorize the Chair to sign the resolution. <br /> VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br /> Chair Price asked the Clerk to prepare a cover letter to send the historical marker <br /> resolution. <br /> b. Resolution Apologizing for Past Racial Terror Lynching <br /> The Board considered approving a resolution acknowledging criminal acts of racial terror <br /> lynching that occurred across the United States in the aftermath of the Civil War and from <br /> Reconstruction through the middle of the twentieth century, and specifically acts that occurred <br /> in Orange County; apologizing to all victims of racial terror lynching in Orange County <br /> perpetrated or condoned by past Orange County elected officials; and expressing deepest <br /> sympathies to the families and descendants for all women and men who were murdered by <br /> racial terror lynching, and for the denial of their dignity and basic human rights. <br /> BACKGROUND: Racial terror lynching was known widely to occur across the United States in <br /> the aftermath of the Civil War and from Reconstruction through the middle of the twentieth <br /> century. These criminal acts were committed against numerous named and unnamed <br /> individuals and claimed the lives of more than 120 Black people in North Carolina. Four such <br /> criminal acts specifically known to have taken place in Orange County occurred against Daniel <br /> Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Cyrus Guy, Wright Woods and Manly McCauley. <br /> BOCC Chair Renee Price and Commissioner Anna Richards drafted the proposed Board <br /> resolution. The resolution acknowledges the criminal acts of racial terror lynching that occurred <br /> in Orange County; apologizes to all victims of racial terror lynching in Orange County <br /> perpetrated or condoned by past Orange County elected officials; and expresses deepest <br /> sympathies to the families and descendants for all women and men who were murdered by <br /> racial terror lynching. <br /> Chair Price read the following Resolution: <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 <br /> aftermath of the Civil War and from Reconstruction through the middle of the twentieth century; <br /> and <br /> WHEREAS, lynching became a practice predominantly inflicted upon Black or African American <br /> men, women and children by white individuals, vigilante mobs and law enforcement officers —to <br /> instill fear and 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 <br /> farmworkers near Hillsborough, were accused of barn burning and insulting women, and <br /> lynched by a mob that left a note identifying themselves as the Ku Klux Klan; and <br />