Why we should rename Hugh MacRae Park (NC)
By Philip Gerard
Published: Sunday, September 27, 2015 at 12:33 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, September 27, 2015 at 12:33 p.m.
... there’s been much discussion about renaming Hugh MacRae Park ... Mr. MacRae was a ringleader in an illegal takeover of the city’s elected government and culpable in the murders of an uncounted number of African American citizens ... He and the other ringleaders never stood trial for their crimes, and while many of them, like MacRae, went on to become successful and rich, those they killed or drove out of town at bayonet point — and their descendants -- had no such luck ... Manly, the black newspaper editor driven from town, returned in 1925 to take possession of his property, only to be told there was no record that he owned any ... It is no accident that the 1898 coup — like the war itself -- was engineered to reverse an election: the 1896 election that had ousted certain men of privilege from their posts. Many of the ringleaders — including Alfred Moore Waddell, who led the mob that burned Manly’s newspaper — had been Confederate officers ...
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20150927/ARTICLES/150929735?Title=Philip-Gerard-Why-we-should-rename-Hugh-MacRae-Park