In rembrance: the legacy of George Taylor
Shannon Hardy will lead a discussion at Soapstone United Methodist Church, Raleigh, at 6:30 P.M. on November 5 about truth telling and remembering the 1918 lynching of George Taylor in Wake County.
Caution: Some of the material presented may be disturbing.
What is it? After a presentation on the facts of the lynching of George Taylor in November 1918, the audience will be asked to reflect on contemporary sources that reported the lynching. A panel discussion among members of the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition and a descendant of George Taylor will follow.
What is the background of this initiative? In the fall of 2017, three Wake County educators and their students began researching the 1918 lynching of George Taylor. Their efforts led to a collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative based in Montgomery, Alabama, and the formation of the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition. The students worked with archival documents and oral histories to create a timeline of the lynching and identified its location. Over the years, the coalition has led truth-telling events, worked for the installation of a historical marker for George Taylor in Rolesville, and obtained commitments for the inclusion of a "George Taylor Research Room" in a proposed new Wake County Library in Rolesville.
Why should I care? In Montgomery, Alabama, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) has built The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. It memorializes lynching victims all over the United States. In the memorial, there is a hanging column for each county inscribed with the names of the lynching victims in that county. A field outside is filled with identical columns. The goal is to guide communities with documented lynchings through the reconciliation process starting with collecting a jar of soil from the lynching site. The jars are then put in the EJI Museum, and the community remembers the person killed with a marker in their community. The Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition took part in this process, working with the Town of Rolesville which erected the historical marker about George Taylor on September 7, 2024, in Rolesville’s Main Street Park.
Why should I attend this discussion? In the discussion, Hardy will be joined by members of the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition, historians, teachers and former students who worked on the original research into Taylor’s killing 107 years ago. Hardy has led classroom and community discussions with students and community groups. She has led groups of educators and community leaders to Montgomery, Alabama, to Bryan Stevenson’s Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice.
Efforts like this event and the process to erect the historical marker by the Rolesville’s Remembrance Project Committee and other public interest groups are tangible steps being taken to build local awareness and enable truthful conversations about the legacy of racial terrorism and injustices in our community. These actions are just a few of many steps needed to move toward healing the past and seeding a future of unity, trust and respect for one another.
Location and Time: Soapstone United Methodist Church, 12837 Norwood Road, Raleigh, NC. 27613, November 5, 2025, 6:30 PM
https://soapstoneumc.org/ https://www.waketruth.org/