In a gathering at Main Street Park, the town of Rolesville alongside the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition, and in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative, welcomed the reveal of a new historical marker. The solemn monument serves to commemorate the life of George Taylor, an African American man lynched over a century ago, with the incident being one of the tragically few documented cases of lynching in Wake County. The unveiling drew a crowd of over 100 attendees, including roughly 25 descendants of Taylor who came to honor their ancestor and acknowledge this dark chapter of history.
At the unveiling, captured by Rolesville’s official website, family members shared how they discovered their connection to Taylor, and the path to establishing the historical marker. "When we found out about the event, I reached out to the coalition and asked why we weren’t invited," Thelma Morrison, Taylor's granddaughter, told the assembled crowd. Her interaction with the coalition revealed a mutual search had been on—the coalition had been diligently looking for Taylor's descendants. This meaningful exchange led several family members to book flights from destinations like New York and New Jersey, converging in Raleigh-Durham to be part of the solemn ceremony.
The marker's inauguration was the culmination of a project that began back in 2017, inspired by a student's curiosity about local histories of lynching. That inquiry sparked an extensive, years-long research endeavor by Shannon Hardy, a co-founder of the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition, and her colleagues. The work involved their students in the investigative process, one of whom, Mikhalia Lambert, shared at the ceremony that, "The more we uncovered, the more we wanted to know," as stated on Rolesville's website.
The crowd learned about Taylor’s false accusation of assaulting a white woman named Ruby Rogers and the tragic events that followed his arrest. Taylor was the fourth suspect presented to Rogers. Although she initially failed to identify him, she later claimed to recognize Taylor by his voice, which led to his capture by masked men and subsequent lynching by a mob. His death, marked by brutality and injustice, was met with no legal consequences, as no one was held accountable for his murder. Research conducted by the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition and presented by Derek Versteegen of the Rolesville Historical Society uncovered 124 articles related to the lynching.
In a display of unity and remembrance, Rolesville Mayor Ronnie Currin, Town Manager Eric Marsh, and Ann-Michelle Roberts of the coalition took part in revealing the marker. Its presence in Main Street Park now stands as both a tribute to George Taylor.
