On the whole Aycock contributed much more
to the betterment of our state.
His contributions to education
far out shadow his racist inclinations.
I say the name stays.
David Brantley Craft
Greater Greensboro Politics
January 15, 2015, at 7:12am
"...he was also a leader of the so-called "White Supremacy Campaign" in 1898, which dislodged the biracial Republicans and Populist Party members who controlled state politics at the time. Aycock oversaw the codification of some of North Carolina's earliest Jim Crow laws, and the 1898 election led to a bloody uprising against Republican leadership in Wilmington in which white mobs killed scores of people.
We must disfranchise the negro.
To do so is both desirable and necessary
desirable because it sets the white man
free to move along faster than he can go
when retarded by the slower movement of the negro.
Charles Brantley Aycock
Acceptance speech for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination
April, 1900
"With that kind of record, it's very hard to make those kinds of guys your patron saints in the contemporary context," said Harry Watson, director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill."
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/21/1505032_vance-aycock-dinner-is-history.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
.
.
"On June 17, 2014, Duke University officially removed his name from their residence hall after extensive review and analysis of Governor Aycock's violent white supremacy ties and history of the disenfranchisement of black voters.
...Often overlooked was Aycock's role as a leading spokesman in the white supremacy campaigns of 1898 and 1900, which historians say were marked by widespread violence, voter intimidation, voter fraud and even a coup d'état of the government of Wilmington.... The campaigns had far-reaching consequences: Blacks were removed from the voter rolls based on literacy tests, Jim Crow customs were encoded into law, and the Democratic Party controlled Tar Heel politics for two-thirds of the 20th century."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brantley_Aycock
.
.
"He spent most of this speech defending the new state Constitution ratified that year after widespread violence, fraud and intimidation against black voters turned over state control to racist Southern Democrats. “The Democratic party,” waxed Aycock, “takes the true, bold ground that a white man is superior to a negro and that the law of man will follow the law of God in recognition of it.”
...before Aycock and his gang of racist thugs ascended to power in the election of 1898, North Carolina was on a steady track toward racial progress. Great strides toward enfranchisement were made during Reconstruction, and by 1894 years of agricultural and financial crises had allowed a progressive, interracial coalition of Republicans and Populists to win a majority of seats in the General Assembly. Feeling threatened, wealthy white landowners began mounting a campaign to demonize blacks, promising “rule by the white men of the state” that would wrest power from the menace of “negro domination.” They enrolled propagandists to whip up racial hysteria, portraying black men as devils, vampires and rapists in cartoons—highly effective in an era of high illiteracy—in the Democratic mouthpiece of the time, the Raleigh News and Observer.
Charles Aycock was the rising star of the Democratic party before the 1898 election and one of its most popular speechmakers. Stopping in majority-black Wilmington during a speechmaking tour, then North Carolina’s most populous city, he called it “the center of the white supremacy movement” he was helping to forge...
A month later, after the election of a fusionist mayor and a biracial city council, an armed mob of white men marched on Wilmington’s City Hall and conducted the only successful coup d’état in U.S. history. Given guns and whiskey, the men forced both black and white city officials to resign at gunpoint, installing a new Democrat mayor and city council in their place. Mob members used rapid-fire weapons to indiscriminately kill black people in the streets, and in the end more than 2,000 black residents left the city permanently, flipping its racial composition. No official number of the dead exists, but some estimates place the toll above 90.
We came through the civil rights movement
in a much more peaceful way than most other southern states.
There were plenty of other people that abhorred the system,
but had to complacently go along because it was so ingrained.
I'm not forgetting or forgiving anything.
I'm balancing his contributions with his negatives.
As others have said,
I think it's instructive to keep a name like that out in public
and acknowledge the good and the bad of the man.
David Brantley Craft
Greater Greensboro Politics
Thanks to the forceful white takeover of the state, North Carolina by 1900 had a new, racist Constitution instituting a poll tax, literacy tests administered by whites and a “grandfather clause” that disenfranchised most black residents. White Democrats with control of the legislature pioneered the Jim Crow laws that would infect the whole American South. Aycock presided over a new regime of forced separation and second-class citizenship that African-Americans struggled under for over 60 years—a regime whose oppressive economic reverberations ring to this day."
http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2013/02/25/time-end-silence-aycock#.VLlIiCvF_T8
.
.
David Brantley Craft
823 N Exx Sx
Greensboro, NC
http://www.intelius.com/people/David-Craft/089dan1a98y
.
.
Charles Brantley Aycock
White Supremacist
.
.
Brantley?
.
.
As some of my posts to Greater Greensboro Politics on Facebook have been deleted by David Brantley Craft, I will no longer be engaged in active debate within the group.
http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2013/09/as-some-of-my-posts-to-greater.html
.
.
"Guarino; "The Aycock name: Time for a change"
David Craft says: February 15, 2013 at 8:53 AM
Billy Graham held segregated crusades in his early years.
We forgive him for that.
Charles [Brantley] Aycock brought education to the masses.
He was a man of his time.
We can forgive him for his segregationist views."
.
.
Joe Guarino says:
February 15, 2013 at 1:57 PM
...The actions of the modern Democratic Party certainly tend to have the effect of keeping far too many African-Americans “on the plantation”.
David, and Jacqui, let me understand the implications of the position the two of you are taking.
Charles [Brantley] Aycock was responsible in part for Jim Crow laws that were passed and signed into law when he served as Governor. Are you suggesting that you are opposed to the names of Reagan and Graham and John Paul and Thatcher being placed on these facilities even though they played no such role?
You would oppose their names, but support leaving Aycock’s name in place?
Wow.
(BTW, David, Graham changed his policy during 1952, long before the the civil rights movement reached a full head of steam, and long before the resulting federal interventions took place. It was a very courageous thing to do at that particular moment. You can’t equate Graham with the guy who helped pass the Jim Crow laws into effect.)
.
.
Bob Grenier says:
February 16, 2013 at 7:00 PM
Here’s a question for Jacqui and Crafty:
Did Aycock ever publically repent for his role as a segregationist?
Did he ever apologize for behaving in a way that the two of you would find obnoxious?
On the other hand, when there’s a beloved “progressive” agenda item to be supported, like Pubblick Edjucashun, any unflattering past history can be forgiven by those who love to claim the non-existent moral high ground.
We see a shining example of such in Craft’s and Hawkins’ response.
.
.
Joe Guarino says:
February 16, 2013 at 10:44 PM
Bob, what you say unfortunately appears to be true."
http://greensboroguardian.com/2013/02/14/the-aycock-name-time-for-a-change/
.
.
"UNCG ALUMNI NEWS
WINTER • 1991
Charles [Brantley] Aycock and conservative Democrats rode back to power in the 1898 and 1900 elections with a virulent campaign to segregate the races and expand public education. It took racism and commitment to education to ensure enough votes to get the Populists and the Republicans out of power.
...David [Brantley] Craft
...Ann Craft
...Joanne Brantley Craft
...Lester Craft Jr
...Mary Brantley Boyd
...Dotty Rabey Brantley
...Lib Aycock Blackman
...Kathenne Aycock Boyette
...Grace Mewborn Aycock..."
http://archive.org/stream/alumninewsuniwin1991unse/alumninewsuniwin1991unse_djvu.txt
.
.
"Joanne Brantley Craft ’50, her husband, Bill, and their son, David B. Craft ’85, made leadership contributions to the Craft Family Fund, an endowment that supports students in risk management and finance.
David Craft is senior vice president of Craft/The Insurance Center.
...David B. Craft ’85
Joanne Brantley Craft ’50
Craft Family Endowed Fund in Business and Economics"
http://www.uncg.edu/bae/newsletters/alumni/spring06.pdf
