Editing Bolton, North Carolina (section)

== History ==
Bolton was established in 1899 and named for the Bolton Lumber Company. It became an incorporated community in 1915.{{sfn|Powell|1976|p=57}}

In 1981 undercover agents of the U.S. [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] were investigating corruption in Columbus County as part of the [[Colcor]] investigation. As part of their inquiry into election fraud, the agents pretended to be interest in opening a bar in Bolton. They pushed for a referendum to legalize liquor-by-the-drink in the town and paid local politician Herbert Riggins to [[vote buying|buy votes]] in their favor, the first time the FBI had ever attempted to manipulate a public election.<ref name= alston4>{{cite news| last1 = Alston| first1 = Chuck| last2 = Swofford| first2 = Stan| title = The FBI Snares A Patsy : Official Played Role Agents Wrote For Him|series=The Colcor Chronicles| newspaper = Greensboro Daily News| page = | date = January 23, 1984| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=khFYyHUauRAC&pg=PA462}}</ref><ref name= alston2>{{cite news| last1 = Alston| first1 = Chuck| last2 = Swofford| first2 = Stan| title = FBI Springs Its Last Traps : Agents Fake Arrests To Keep Deception Alive|series=The Colcor Chronicles| newspaper = Greensboro Daily News| page = | date = January 25, 1984| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=khFYyHUauRAC&pg=PA473}}</ref> The referendum was held on April 30, 1982, with a majority of local residents in favor of legalizing liquor-by-the-drink, though Riggins mostly avoided involving himself in the vote.<ref name= alston2/> The [[North Carolina State Board of Elections]] later nullified the referendum.{{sfn|Lawless|2012|loc=Chapter 14: Stings, Scams, Future Trends and Collateral Attacks : Operation "Colcor"}}

The Colcor affair was followed by a series of other scandals which embroiled the town, beginning with the shooting of the town's first black mayor in 1990 by a white State Highway Patrolman. Civil rights groups responded by launching the "Bolton Movement", a series of protests across the county, which led to the [[Ku Klux Klan]] hosting counterprotests in the town. A few years later the mayor and an alderman pled no contest to charges of mismanaging the town's finances. In 2002 the Bolton police chief was placed on administrative leave after allegedly attacking a couple in the town hall who were complaining about police brutality.<ref>{{cite news| last = Scott| first = Sam| title = Reputation precedes town| newspaper = The News & Observer| page = B4| date = June 25, 2002| url = https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117142039/the-news-and-observer/}}</ref>