Aycock, Charles Brantley
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Aycock, Charles Brantley
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The 50th governor of North Carolina and a Meredith College Trustee who upheld Lost Cause ideas and fought for segregation.
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Governor (1901-1905) of North Carolina and Meredith Trustee (1893 – 1894), Charles B. Aycock was long considered the “Education Governor” for expanding and reforming public schools in North Carolina. Aycock was also a segregationist, architect of Jim Crow laws, and supporter of the Lost Cause. In 1903 Aycock gave a speech presenting the “Negro Problem” and how the state of North Carolina had solved it by not “coddling” the Negro and barring them from government. Aycock continued to use similar language in other speeches he gave. When giving a speech on the Commonwealth in Greensboro, he stated, “We have taken charge of the negro. We are strong. He is weak. We will do justly by him. We will make the most of him," expressing that as long as whites have power, they will “control” negroes. Besides speeches, Aycock was also involved in the 1898 White Supremacy Campaign, being in one of the leading roles as a spokesman. Long after his term as trustee, Aycock continued to go back to the college during his time as Governor, maintaining a long-term relationship with the college. The students admired him; he was featured in campus publications often, and he gave lectures on the campus. In 1912, Aycock delivered a lecture about the life of Robert E. Lee. In this speech, Aycock compares Lee to Moses and proclaims how Lee had lived a “perfect life” and shows how the Lost Cause influenced Meredith by promoting Lee's life as being especially worthy of emulation.
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November 1, 1859
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April 4, 1912
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State of North Carolina
Position: 56 (398 views)
