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Reconstruction’s Peak in WNC
April 13, 2019 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Join us at the Vance Birthplace, where Dr. Steven Nash will give a lecture about the 1868 election riot in Asheville.
The November 3, 1868 election riot in Asheville was a critical turning point in Western North Carolina’s Reconstruction. It showed the strength of a biracial Republican coalition, the importance of federal power in the Appalachian South, and the growing desperation of white opponents to the changes wrought by the Civil War. The violence in Asheville’s city square marked the emergence of the KKK and a reign of terror that threatened to divide mountain Republicans.
Dr. Nash, Associate Professor of History at East Tennessee State University, will discuss what happened, how it changed the course of Reconstruction in the region, and the lessons we can still take from it today.
