The Asheville Riot of 1868
How Political Violence Undermined Reconstruction in the North Carolina Mountains.
Pack Memorial Public Library will focus on Asheville’s history during Reconstruction in a lecture on Tuesday, April 11, 2023, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at its main location at 67 Haywood St. in downtown Asheville. The event is free, but seating is limited and registration is recommended.
The 1868 election riot in Asheville was a critical turning point in western North Carolina’s Reconstruction. It revealed the strength of the biracial Republican coalition formed after the Civil War, and the desperate determination of its opponents to defeat it. The violence in Asheville’s public square marked the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan and a reign of terror that threatened the democratic order created in the Confederacy’s wake.
The lecture will be given by Dr. Stephen Nash, Professor of History at East Tennessee State University. He is the author of Reconstruction’s Ragged Edge: The Politics of Postwar Life in the Southern Mountains (UNC Press, 2016), and co-editor of Southern Communities: Identity, Conflict, and Memory in the American South (UGA Press, 2019). He is also president of the Mountain History & Culture Group, the nonprofit support board for the Vance Birthplace State Historic Site.
To register in advance, email [email protected] or visit specialcollections.buncombecounty.org/programs and go to the April 11 page, then click the “sign up” button. For more information, email the library or phone (828) 250-4740.
