Charles Brantley Aycock

The history governor

bniolet — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:46:59 -0400

Gov. Beverly Perdue is writing her own story.

Literally.

A new feature on Perdue's Web site includes a brief biography of each of North Carolina's governors.

"No North Carolina governor, with the exception of Zebulon B. Vance, has been as venerated as Charles Brantley Aycock (1859-1912), with whose term the Democratic Party inaugurated a seventy-two year hold on the office," reads the biography of Aycock, which also helps explain, by the way, where this weekend's Vance-Aycock dinner got its name.

It's notable, if not entirely unexpected, to find that the biography of the current governor is both longer and more boosterish than any other on the list.

N.C. Democrats honor Frye

bkrueger — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:18:39 -0400

The N.C. Democratic Party is adding former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Henry Frye to its pantheon of political heroes.

The party is renaming its newest fundraising dinner, the Sanford-Hunt Dinner, the Sanford-Hunt-Frye Dinner, reports Rob Christensen.

The dinner, named after former govenrors Terry Sanford (1961-65) and Jim Hunt (1977-85, 1993-2001), was started several years ago and is held in conjunction with party meetings.

Frye, of Greensboro, was the first African-American state legislator elected in North Carolina in the 20th century and the state's first black chief justice.

The Democrats will hold its first Sanford-Hunt-Frye Dinner on Aug. 29 in at the Hilton Charlotte University Place in connection with a meeting of the state Democratic Executive Committee meeting.

The decision to add Frye’s name comes a year after there was some controversy concerning the party’s traditional Vance-Aycock fundraising dinner in Asheville.

Some Democrats thought it was inappropriate to continue to honor former Gov. Charles Brantley Aycock (1901-1905) because of his role in the white supremacist campaigns at the turn of the last century.

From integration to inauguration

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:31:59 -0500

History circled back on itself this morning.

As a fourth-grader in 1964, Joy Vanhook Nelson and nine classmates integrated Aycock Elementary in rural Orange County.

Racists called her names. The high-school student who drove the elementary school bus insisted she and her black classmates sit at the back. And the school was named for one of the leaders of the Wilmington race riots in 1898.

This morning, she watched the nation's first black president be inaugurated from a spot on the national mall.

"I'm just elated," she said. "Growing up in the hard south, integrating my elementary school and then to see this — a black president — you know what I think about that."

Nelson, 53, moved to Long Island, New York, in 2002 to teach special education, but she comes back to Cedar Grove during the holidays.

In December, she got together with five of her classmates.

"We stayed up until 4:30 a.m. reminiscing about integration — what our parents wanted for us — and talking about the election," she said. "Life is good."

Vance and Aycock at the U.S. Capitol

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:09:41 -0500

It's not just the N.C. Democratic Party that honors Vance and Aycock.

The state of North Carolina and the federal government have also chosen to honor former Govs. Zebulon Baird Vance and Charles Brantley Aycock.

Statues of the two men are on display at the U.S. Capitol building.

The statue of Vance is in the National Statuary Hall, a sort of Hall of Fame for each of the 50 states that doubles as a "spin room" following the State of the Union. He stands alongside such notables as Ethan Allen, Sam Houston and Jefferson Davis.

The statue of Aycock is located in the Crypt, directly below the Capitol Rotunda and near the gift shop.

Vance was cast in 1916 by Gutzon Borglum; Aycock was cast by Charles Keck in 1932.

The Vance-Aycock Dinner, an annual fundraiser for state Democrats named for the two men, drew controversy last year when some officials protested the two men's records on civil rights.

Vance was governor during the Confederate era, while Aycock participated in the 1898 Wilmington coup.

And the runner up is...

markjohnson — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:13:39 -0400

N.C. Democratic leaders pitched to get either U.S. Sen. Barack Obama or U.S. Sen. Joe Biden to speak at their annual Vance-Aycock dinner on Saturday in Asheville but apparently gave up on snaring their party's nominee for president or vice president.

They settled on Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. Party officials announced the speaker on Tuesday. Obama and Biden haven't neglected the state, though. They appeared together in Greensboro last Saturday. Both have visited in recent weeks, and the campaign is pumping money and people into the state.

An appearance by Obama, the first black presidential nominee by a major party, would have been notable at a dinner named for Gov. Charles Brantley Aycock, a leading voice for the white supremacy campaigns of 1898 and 1900.

A modest proposal for Vance-Aycock

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:41:05 -0400

The N.C. Democratic Party is in quite a quandary.

The Vance-Aycock Dinner has been an annual tradition for nearly a half century, rallying the faithful, serving as a touchstone for western Democrats and raising substantial amounts of money.

But it's named for two folks — onetime Confederate Zebulon Vance and 1898 race riot participant Charles Brantley Aycock — who have fallen out of favor with history.

At least one major Democratic officeholder called for the name to be changed, but no one has a good alternative. Rename it a generic "Asheville Dinner" and you risk losing the brand. Naming it for someone else risks bringing up a whole new set of issues. But doing nothing looks insensitive.

Dome has a "modest proposal" for the Democrats — and it even has a North Carolina connection.

Back in Seattle where we grew up, the local municipal government was named "King County" in the 1850s for former Vice President William Rufus King, who was born in Sampson County and served in the North Carolina legislature.

By the mid 1980s, the slaveholding vice president had fallen out of favor with history as well, and had no special hold on the Northwest.

The King County Council adopted a resolution opting for a name change. The new name? King County, after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. After the state government approved the change in 2005, they changed their logo to a silhouette of King as well.

So, all the North Carolina Democrats need to do is come up with a new Vance and a new Aycock to rename the dinner after.

With only a few minutes research on the Internet, we came up with two suitable replacements: Former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and former UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor William Brantley Aycock.

What is the Vance-Aycock dinner?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:17:52 -0500

Answer:

An annual dinner held in Asheville in October by the state Democratic Party since 1960.

The event serves three purposes: Raising money for the party, rallying the Democratic faithful ahead of the November elections and serving as a platform for state candidates.

Keynote speakers have included U.S. Sens. John Glenn, Joe Biden and Al Gore; Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter and vice presidential candidate Edmund Muskie. The event is usually held at the historic Grove Park Inn.

It was named for former governors Zebulon Vance and Charles Brantley Aycock, both Democrats.

In 2007, it drew controversy when a Republican group threatened to protest over Aycock's role in the 1898 Wilmington coup. State Treasurer Richard Moore, then a candidate for the gubernatorial nomination, also said the name should be changed.

The state party decided to look into a name change in January of 2008.

In 2008, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama spoke at the dinner while in town preparing for the second presidential debate.

A similar event, the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, is held in Raleigh in the spring.

Brief:

An annual dinner held in Asheville in October by the state Democratic Party since 1960.

Logrolling in our time?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:41:21 -0500

Richard Moore's praise of Marie Watters Colton apparently paid off.

As Jordan Schrader points out on his Capital Letters blog, the state treasurer suggested renaming the Vance-Aycock Dinner after Colton, the former speaker pro tem from Buncombe County, during a brouhaha over Gov. Charles Brantley Aycock.

According to an Oct. 2 story in the Asheville Citizen-Times, Moore said Aycock doesn't represent Democratic values today:

He said plenty of Western North Carolinians, like the late House Speaker Liston Ramsey, of Madison County, or former Speaker Pro Tem Marie Colton, of Buncombe County, would make better namesakes than Goldsboro native Aycock.

Colton was among a group of former female legislators who endorsed Moore's gubernatorial campaign today.

Slippery slope?

Michelle_Valenzuela — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:43:22 -0400

Republican Carter Wrenn over at the Talking About Politics blog takes up the flap about Gov. Aycock this morning. His position:

"If we’re going to start ostracizing our ancestors for their clay feet, pretty soon we’ll have no one left to honor at all. So, maybe, it would be wiser to accept the past warts and all rather than getting holier-than-thou about it."

He goes on to skewer State Treasurer Richard Moore for calling for Aycock's name to be removed from the big Democratic fund raiser coming up:

"Vilifying Charles Aycock’s a cheap way to win votes. If Mr. Moore really wants to win African-American votes, maybe, he should join Black leaders who oppose the lottery. Of course, that would mean taking a politically unpopular stand. There’s less risk attacking a long dead Governor. The question is: Where’s the beef?"

Read the whole post here. And keep your eye on the N&O for a Rob Christensen story on the subject.

Note: Edited to reflect that item was posted by Carter Wrenn on Talking About Politics.

Butterfield: Proud to be a Democrat

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:56:37 -0400

Guest commentaries usually have a point.

Often, a writer is seeking to add some perspective on a newsworthy issue. But, as a rule of thumb, they also make clear what that point is.

The Asheville Citizen-Times has published an op-ed by U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield. It has a point, Dome thinks, but it doesn't come right out and say it. Take a look:

As a child growing up in Wilson, N.C., the few African-Americans who were registered to vote were aligned with the Democratic Party.

Setting aside the dangling participle in that sentence, we can surmise that this commentary is in response to the now-canceled protest of the Vance-Aycock Dinner by a Republican group.

The Carolina Stompers points out that Gov. Aycock was a racist. On the eve of the dinner, one of the state's two black members — who lives 300 miles away — pens an op-ed about the long history of Democrats and civil rights for the Asheville paper.

We think we get it, but then again, Butterfield never says exactly.