by Jim Aycock, in response to a column by Rob Schofield and Chris Fitzsimon, September 28, 2016
I feel compelled to react to your column about the Rev. William Barber, the messenger, and with facts, not as an "uninformed blowhard." Full disclosure: my wife is Patsy Keever, chair of the NC Democratic Party, and former Gov. Charles Aycock was my great grandfather's brother. This email will be fully documented. In addition to Rev. Barber, I will address NC Policy Watch's recent pickups of columns by Allen Johnson of the Greensboro News-Record.
When Donald Trump spoke in Wilmington, he commented on "second amendment" people as a solution to the election of Hillary Clinton and her appointment of Supreme Court judges. Rev Barber responded with a column in The Nation magazine's online edition dated August 17. The story was titled, "The Scary History of Trump's Second Amendment Call to Action." This story continues a decade of false accusations, innuendo, half truths and outright published lies about Charles Aycock, which I have documented. The official state-funded Wilmington Race Riot Commission Report, unchallenged as the single best authority, does not place Aycock in Wilmington at any time before, during or after the riot. It does not say he advocated, helped plan or participated in any violence.
Rev. Barber blamed only Aycock for the tragedy in Wilmington. His story in The Nation did not name any person who was actually in Wilmington, only Aycock who was not there. Barber ignored Aycock's expression of regrets for events in Wilmington (official report page 188 and in the 1961 biography by Oliver Orr on page 136). Aycock was the only Democrat quoted as expressing regrets.
The inflammatory and false accusations by Rev. Barber in The Nation are, "About 120 years ago, Charles B. Aycock, a leader of the white-supremacy campaign in North Carolina, aroused a crowd of angry white men looking for someone to blame for their problems. Aycock .... suggested that the white race would be justified in using violence to overthrow a Fusion government in Wilmington, the state’s largest city at the time. Two years later, following a Fusion victory in the election of 1898, Aycock’s crowd turned his words into deeds. Scores of angry white men burned down the only black-owned daily newspaper in the state, rampaged through the streets with a Gatling gun, shot dozens of un-armed African Americans....etc."
The official commission report dates Aycock's first participation in the campaign as follows: "In May 1898, just before the Democratic Convention convened, he "sounded the keynote of the 'white supremacy' campaign" in Laurinburg. This was only six months before the November election. But Rev. Barber says Aycock called for violence two years before the election. He quotes no actual words by Aycock and gives no source. Readers of The Nation cannot judge for themselves, but must rely on Rev. Barber's interpretation. It is his interpretation that should be judged.
Dr. Tim Tyson, a historian and education director of the NC NAACP, contradicted Barber's charges in emails to me in August 2015 as follows, "I don't think Aycock and his colleagues had any notion of starting a race war. (If Gov. Aycock himself said any such thing, I have not seen it in the historical record.).....The white supremacy campaigns were bad enough and need no inflation. To say that Aycock fomented the Wilmington Race Riot is not the case......I have never seen any speech or statement by Aycock that could be described as fomenting the violence." Dr. Tyson's emails to me are available to you or anyone else upon request.
Even more egregious by Barber in The Nation were these words, "Scores of angry white men....rampaged through the streets with a Gatling gun, shot dozens of un-armed African Americans...." Rev. Barber clearly intended readers to believe white rioters (Democrats) used rapid fire guns to mow down blacks on the streets. The official record absolutely refutes Rev. Barber's false accusation.
"Angry white men" is vague and could apply to anyone. The rapid fire weapons were at all times controlled by military units acting on orders from Gov. Daniel Russell, a Republican who ordered in the military to restore peace. Gun crews were used to intimidate black and white rioters alike and force them to disperse. A group of black men, who were armed despite Rev. Barber's claims otherwise, opened fire on a military unit, which returned fire not with the rapid fire gun but with rifles in self defense, see page 144 in the official report. (A recent article in The New Yorker made the same false claim but did not mention Charles Aycock.)
Following are direct quotes from the official commission report which absolutely refute Rev. Barber on Gatling guns and other rapid fire weapons.
Page 121. "The governor called out the Wilmington Light Infantry (WLI) who marched into Brooklyn to calm the riot. The WLI and the Naval Reserves operated two rapid fire guns in the city. The guns were used to intimidate and terrorize both blacks and whites....Another rapid fire gun was brought to the city by members of the Kinston Naval Reserves, who joined the WLI and other State Guard units in the city to press for peace at the behest of the governor."
Page 124. "Once the official military in the form of the WLI and the State Guard were called out upon the order of Governor Daniel Russell later on the 10th, Moore's men (civilian block captains) either dispersed or joined the forays of the WLI in keeping the peace, even as the Red Shirts and Rough Riders continued to act on their own."
Page 132. "Rountree then called for the rapid fire gun from the armory to be brought to the compress so it could be used to intimidate people into peacefulness."
Page 136. "Once the riot alarm was sounded, Walker Taylor declared martial law, and the WLI and the Naval Reserves began to make their way into the Brooklyn neighborhood."
Page 137. "Taylor had authority to take control because just before Moore's call for backup was received at the armory, a telegram arrived from Governor Russell through the state's adjutant general that instructed Taylor to 'take command....and preserve the peace.'"
Page 142. "Rountree....attempted to 'quiet the situation and prevent further shooting,' but acknowledged 'no influence whatever with the rioters' and was pleased that the arrival of the military 'quieted the matter down as quickly as possible.'"
Page 142. "Once the riot alarm was sounded and the authority to act was granted by the governor, Captain James, upon orders from Walker Taylor, mobilized the waiting forces of the WLI to march into the Brooklyn neighborhood."
Page 144. "The members of the WLI and machine gun squad believed that showing the gun in the black sections of the city would intimidate them into quietude. Later recollections also indicate that the gun had a calming effect on white rioters who were out of control of the military."
Page 144. ".....the crew was fired upon....just on the north side of the Sixth Street bridge. The gunners were armed with rifles, and they returned fire...." (conflicting reports begin here on the number of dead, including blaming Red Shirts for many who were killed.)
Page 145. "The second gun, deployed by the Naval Reserves....proved a formidable weapon. Commander Morton and his men also wheeled this weapon through town, aiming it at crowds to coerce groups into dispersing."
Pages 145-146. "Journalist Thomas Clawson of the (Wilmington) Messenger followed the activity of the WLI's rapid fire gun closely. Clawson....ventured into Brooklyn to witness the fighting....Clawson was proud of the squad for their bravery since they were exposed to sniper fire.....He firmly believed that bloodshed would have been much more significant without the presence of the flying machine gun squadron."
Rev. Barber should be required to back up his accusations in The Nation with facts. He cannot do it.
Rev. Barber is linked to other false accusations. Sylvia Barnes is president of the NAACP chapter in Goldsboro, which is Rev. Barber's home. In January 2016 she was quoted by Cash Michaels in The Carolinian and in the Wilmington Journal: "It has been 118 years ago since men from the northern part of [Wayne] county marched to Wilmington and burned down the city, raped [black] women, hung our men, destroyed the black newspaper, and killed people.” There is no evidence to support these charges by the NAACP. The official commission report on the riot does not mention any rapes, reports no hangings, does not mention any men from Wayne County coming to Wilmington, and the city was not burned down. Her story implies without stating directly that Charles Aycock was among those men from Wayne County who marched to Wilmington. Her purpose was to improperly pressure the Wayne County Board of Education to rename the Charles B. Aycock High School near Goldsboro.
"Barnes is not alone in her concerns," Michaels continued. "Last November, the Goldsboro/Wayne NAACP held a public forum to learn more about Gov. Aycock, his prominent role in the Wilmington 1898 race massacre, and then get feedback from the community." That forum was conducted by Dr. Tim Tyson, an agent of the NC NAACP. It is unclear if the words "prominent role....etc." are his words or those of Michaels. The press statement by Sylvia Barnes came weeks later in January.
Journalistic standards say verify from two sources. When challenged, Michaels wrote to me, "Ms. Barnes' comments are her own opinion. Our job is to report them." He did not corroborate those serious accusations. In libel law failure to verify can be reckless disregard for the truth which defines malice. Cash Michaels, Sylvia Barnes and Rev. Barber have all declined my request to produce any evidence to support those published charges. I can find no evidence that Barber has refuted these false accusations made by his representative in Wayne County. According to Barber's own state education director of the NAACP, Dr. Tim Tyson in emails to me, Aycock had no "prominent role in the Wilmington 1898 race massacre." On July 24 Sylvia Barnes was a speaker in Barber's church in Goldsboro; he had known for months that she had made unsubstantiated accusations against Aycock and men from Wayne County when he invited her to speak.
Last June 16, in response to the Orlando shootings, Rev. Barber issued an NAACP statement that included: "....hate-filled mobs .... installed a white supremacist government both in Wilmington and in the state capital in a violent coup." His words were parsed. The riot in Wilmington was two days after the election. To say "in the state capital in a violent coup" says something that did not happen in Raleigh. Is Rev. Barber defining "coup" as the entire statewide election? Does it depend on what the meaning of the word "is" is?
Why is this happening? It goes back years ago. On Nov. 17, 2006, newspapers in Raleigh, Wilmington and Charlotte carried a 16-page tab on the Wilmington riot, written by Dr. Tyson. In January 2007, only weeks later, the NC Democratic Party apologized for the campaign of 1898. Rob Christensen wrote on Oct. 26, 2007 a story titled, "Aycock legacy gets reappraisal," about the Vance-Aycock Dinner in Asheville.
"The issue will likely come up next week at the state NAACP convention in Wilmington," Christensen wrote. "The Rev. William Barber, the NAACP president, said changing the name of the Vance-Aycock dinner is a fine first step. But Barber would like the state to enact some of the recommendations made by the state's Wilmington riot commission last year, including compensation for the families that lost property, and assistance for minority-owned businesses and home buyers."
That October 2007 convention of the NAACP was closely followed by other relevant events. The agenda only weeks later of the NCDP State Executive Committee meeting on January 26, 2008, included discussions of renaming the Vance-Aycock Dinner. Two days before the SEC meeting, on Jan. 24, 2008, arsonists set fire to the Aycock homeplace, a state historic site, and did $200,000 in damages. No source I have found says Charles Aycock spoke in Wilmington before the coup. If not, rioters may never have heard him but only read his speeches, but Rev. Barber blames him for the violence. By Barber's own logic, doesn't that mean inflammatory writing by Barber and Tyson may have caused the arson at the Aycock home place?
This is about reparations. They continue to demonize the most prominent public figure of that era for their purpose. These attacks will be 10 years old on November 17. I believe Randy Voller will run for NCDP Chair again next February when my wife's term expires; Patsy will not run again. During Voller's prior term he made a failed attempt to replace a fired Robert Dempsey with former national NAACP director Dr. Ben Chavis, a member of the Wilmington 10, as executive director of the NCDP. Voller defended his efforts claiming that Chavis had never been convicted of any of the "false accusations" against him. He ignored my long list of actual false accusations against Aycock, there are dozens. Patsy was first vice chair at the time. She received a draft resolution for the SEC to vote upon, calling on the state legislature to pay state-funded reparations to descendants of the Wilmington victims. I asked Dr. Tim Tyson if the NAACP had played any role in preparing that resolution to be voted upon by the SEC. He did not respond. Later the SEC under Voller approved that resolution and the NCDP has now called upon the legislature to pay reparations. The resolution was part of a consent agenda passed with no discussion; it seems likely that many SEC members were not aware of what they voted for.
Since leaving the position as chair, Voller has worked with an active reparations drive in Wilmington. His Facebook posts today are "from New Hanover County" even though he lives near Chapel Hill. If he is re-elected chair, and if the Democrats regain control of the legislature, pressure will certainly be brought to pay those reparations. The reparations group in Wilmington has published false accusations to support its goals. A new film, "Wilmington On Fire," states in its promotional materials that the riot "had the support of the North Carolina Democratic Party." This is false, see page 71 of the official commission report. The party chair, Furnifold Simmons, tried to restrain Wilmington Democrats, who told him to "go to Hell, we will run things our way down here." A consultant on the film, Sonya Bennetone, has published about the riot "killing thousands of innocent blacks." The official number of inquests was 14. The highest credible estimate of deaths is no more than 60, and I don't mean to minimize that horrible number. Nearly half of them may have been killed when they attacked a rapid fire gun crew which defended itself, see above and commission report page 144. Those men were not "innocent."
You have several times recently picked up columns by Allen Johnson of the Greensboro News-Record. His crusade to force UNC-G to change the name of Aycock Auditorium carried some of the most vicious and false attacks on Charles Aycock in the last 10 years.
Most references here to Aycock are untrue. When this was published, I went over Johnson's head to Publisher Jeff Gauger, who gave me space for a rebuttal, which ran last October 11 and was picked up and published earlier by NC Spin. I did not attack Johnson personally. I sent his column to Dr. Tim Tyson, who responded as follows with words previously quoted above: "I don't think Aycock and his colleagues had any notion of starting a race war. (If Gov. Aycock himself said any such thing, I have not seen it in the historical record.).....The white supremacy campaigns were bad enough and need no inflation. To say that Aycock fomented the Wilmington Race Riot is not the case......I have never seen any speech or statement by Aycock that could be described as fomenting the violence."
While working out my response, Johnson and I corresponded a number of times and he learned more about his subject. He later included in a column about Aycock a mention of the riot, "which he did not plan." That has been the closest he has come to publishing the facts. On the anniversary of the Dylann Roof mass murders, I asked Johnson if he had given any thought to re-visiting his false allegations, and he responded, "Not really."
