Town of Rolesville and the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition, in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative, held ceremony at Main Street Park today unveiling a historical marker dedicated to George Taylor, an African American man who was lynched two miles southeast of Rolesville on Nov. 5, 1918. This remains one of the only documented lynchings to happen in Wake County.
Over 100 people, including about 25 descendants of Taylor, attended today’s ceremony. Multiple family members addressed ceremony attendees. Each told the story of how they discovered they were relatives of Taylor and the historical marker going up at Main Street Park.
"When we found out about the event, I reached out to the coalition and asked why we weren’t invited," Thelma Morrison, granddaughter of George Taylor, said to the crowd. "The coalition then told me that they’d been looking for me. They’d been looking for us."
Several of the family members then booked flights directly to Raleigh-Durham International Airport to take part in this unveiling. They traveled from places like New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
The unveiling has been a project multiple years in the making.
"It all started when one of my students asked if anyone had been lynched in Wake County," Shannon Hardy, Co-Founder of the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition, said. "I didn’t know the answer, but I was determined to find out."
That was in the fall of 2017. Hardy and two other colleagues decided to begin researching Taylor’s death and the events leading up to his lynching. They got their students involved, and the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition was born. Among those student researchers was Mikhalia Lambert. She spoke at today’s event.
"The more we uncovered, the more we wanted to know." Lambert said.
Overall, their research would uncover 124 articles written about Taylor’s lynching in the months after it happened. Their research was presented to ceremony attendees by Derek Versteegen, Vice President of the Rolesville Historical Society.
Taylor was accused of assaulting a white woman named Ruby Rogers and was arrested in Wilson. He was brought to Wendell by train then driven to Rogers’ home. He was the fourth suspect brought before Rogers. Originally, she was unable to identify Taylor was the man who assaulted her. Later that day, she changed her story. She claimed she was able to identify Taylor as her attacker when she heard him speak to those who'd arrested him.
Taylor was then put in a car to be taken to jail. However, the car was intercepted by four men in hoods. They took him to a nearby ravine and kept him there until a mob of over 300 formed. His mutilated body was found the next morning hanging from a tree. To this day, no one has been held accountable for Taylor's murder.
After all the details were read out to ceremony attendees, Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition Ann-Michelle Roberts, Rolesville Mayor Ronnie Currin, and Rolesville Town Manager Eric Marsh unveiled the marker.
To read more about the work done by the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition, visit their website at waketruth.org.
You can watch the full event below.