For decades, the party's yearly fundraiser in western North Carolina had been known as the Vance-Aycock Dinner, after two former Democratic governors. This year the dinner, which is held in October, will be dubbed the Western Gala while a committee works on a permanent replacement title, party spokesman Walton Robinson said.
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Zebulon Vance was a veteran of the Confederate army who also served as governor during the Civil War. But most of the criticism centered on Charles Aycock, who served as governor from 1901 to 1905.
Aycock is remembered as a strong proponent of public schools, which led to his being known as "the Education Governor." His name adorns schools and other public buildings across the state, and a statue depicting him stands on the grounds of the old state Capitol.
But he was also a leader of the "White Supremacy Campaign" in 1898, which dislodged the black and white Republicans and Populist Party members who controlled state politics. 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.
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The Vance-Aycock Dinner started in 1960...
