Editing Alamance County, North Carolina (section)

===Kirk–Holden War===
{{Main|Kirk–Holden war}}
Some of the Civil War's most significant effects were seen after it ended. Alamance County briefly became a center of national attention when in 1870 [[Wyatt Outlaw]], an [[African-American]] town commissioner in [[Graham, North Carolina|Graham]], was lynched by the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. He was president of the Alamance County Union League of America (a progressive reform branch of the Federal Government), helped to establish the Republican party in North Carolina, and advocated establishing a school for African Americans. His offense was that [[William Woods Holden|Governor William Holden]] had appointed him a [[justice of the peace]], and he had accepted the appointment. Outlaw's body was found hanging 30 yards from the courthouse, with a note pinned to his chest reading, "Beware! You guilty parties – both white and black." Outlaw was the central figure in political cooperation between blacks and whites in the county.

On July 8, 1870, Governor Holden declared [[Caswell County]] to be in a state of [[insurrection]] and sent North Carolina militiamen to Caswell and Alamance Counties, under the command of Union veteran George W. Kirk, beginning the so-called Kirk–Holden war. Kirk's troops ultimately arrested 82 men.

The Grand Jury of Alamance County indicted 63 klansmen for felonies and 18 for the murder of Wyatt Outlaw. Soon after the indictments were brought, Democrats in the legislature passed a bill to repeal the law under which the indictments had been secured. The 63 felony charges were dropped. The Democratic Party then used a national program of "Amnesty and Pardon" to proclaim amnesty for all who committed crimes on behalf of a secret society. This was extended to the klansmen of Alamance County. There would be no justice in the case of Wyatt Outlaw.

Holden's support for [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] led to his [[Impeachment in the United States|impeachment]] and removal by the North Carolina Legislature in 1871.