On October 8, 1907, Thomas Walton Patton wrote in his diary, “Election over—bad conduct on part of prohib [prohibition] ladies—very distressing.” Thomas Walton Patton, the third generation of Asheville’s Patton family, was born in Asheville in 1841 and served in the Confederate Army, 1861-1865. The city elected him mayor in 1893 and 1894. Like his grandfather
As part of local commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Center for Diversity Education at UNC Asheville worked with the Buncombe County Register of Deeds to compile a database of documents recording the trade of people as slaves in Buncombe County. A video created as part of this project has won two national awards.