The Lynching of Manly McCauley

Marker Text: On October 30, 1898, a mob of white men lynched a young Black man named Manly McCauley, only 18 years old, a few miles west of Chapel Hill. Mr. McCauley lived and worked in the same area where he was born on the farm of a white couple named Milton and Maggie Brewer. On October 26, Mr. McCauley and Mrs. Brewer left the farm and headed south toward Pittsboro. After news spread that the two had left together, a group of as many as 30 white men joined Mr. Brewer to go in search of them. The mob found Mr. McCauley and Mrs. Brewer together about 40 miles away in Lemon Springs, seized them, and carried them back toward Chapel Hill. When the mob reached their neighborhood just outside Chapel Hill on October 30, Mrs. Brewer was returned to her parents’ home, but Mr. McCauley disappeared. He was assumed to have been lynched. On November 6 that assumption proved true when Mr. McCauley’s body was found hanging from a tree near where Hatch Road and Old Greensboro Road are today. Local white residents and officials left his body hanging for a week and a half. Mr. McCauley’s death was ruled a homicide, and four white men, including Mr. Brewer and some neighbors, were tried for the lynching. All four men were quickly acquitted, and no one was held accountable for lynching Manly McCauley.