Between 1865 and 1950, white mobs lynched over 6,500 black people across the United States as white people continued to support racial hierarchy after the Civil War, attacked black people for asserting economic rights, being accused of crimes, or being perceived as threats to the racial order, and faced little accountability from white officials. In North Carolina, more than 180 lynchings were documented during that period, including at least six in Orange County. In the summer and fall of 1869, a white mob in Orange County terrorized and lynched three black family members: Washington Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, and Daniel Morrow. After three barns belonging to white men burned in July, local white residents suspected the Morrows, a family of sharecroppers who had been evicted months earlier by one of the barn owners. Washington and his brother Nelson were arrested and held in the Hillsborough jail. Around midnight on August 7, about 100 armed white men broke into the jail, seized the brothers, and dragged them out of town. After pretending to release them following an interrogation, the mob shot at them as they fled; Washington was struck in the thigh and died soon afterward. On October 14, a mob of 25 white people stormed the homes of their father, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, and their uncle, Daniel Morrow, put ropes around their necks, dragged them outside, kicked and beat them, and hanged both men from a nearby tree while their families watched. Their bodies were left hanging overnight with a placard reading "for barn burnings and threats," and although some mob members were publicly identified, no one was ever held accountable.