From Staff Reports 

A public history lecture on “The Asheville Riot of 1868” will be presented from 6 to 7:30 p.m. April 11 in Pack Memorial Library at 67 Haywood St. in downtown Asheville.

The talk, delving into Asheville’s history during the Reconstruction era, will be given by Dr. Stephen Nash, a professor of history at East Tennessee State University. 

“The 1868 election riot in Asheville was a critical turning point in Western North Carolina’s Reconstruction,” an event promotion stated “It reveaed the strength of the biracial Republican coalition formed after the Civil War, and desperate determination of its opponents (the Democrats) to defeat it. The violence in Asheville’s Public Square (now called “Pack Square”) marked the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan and a reign of terror that threatened the democratic order created in the Confederacy’s wake.” 

Nash is the author of the book, “Reconstruction’s Ragged Edge: The Politics of Postwar Life in the Southern Mountains” (UNC Press, 2016), and co-editor of “Southern Communities: Itentity, Conflict and Memory in the American South” (UGA Press, 2019). 

He also is president of the Mountain History & Culture Group, the nonprofit support board for the Vance Birthplace State Historic Site located near Weaverville.

The lecture is free, but seating is limited and registration is recommended. To register in advance, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or visit specialcollections.buncombecounty.org/ program, then go to the April 11 page, and finallly, click the “sign up” button.