• By Walkertown Branch
  • Posted Sunday, March 15, 2020

CANCELED: "The Rise and Fall of the Branchhead Boys" with Rob Christensen, March 17 at Walkertown

THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED: Rob Christensen, author of "The Rise and Fall of the Branchhead Boys: North Carolina’s Scott Family and the Era of Progressive Politics," will present a talk about his book on Tuesday, March 17 at 6:30 p.m. "The Rise and Fall of the Branchhead Boys" is about North Carolina’s most famous political family and the struggle to provide basic services to the rural part of North Carolina. This program is sponsored by the Walkertown Area Historical Society.

Louisiana had the Longs, Virginia had the Byrds, Georgia had the Talmadges, and North Carolina had the Scotts. In this history of North Carolina’s most influential political family, Rob Christensen tells the story of the Scotts and the era they dominated Tar Heel politics. Three generations of Scotts—W. Kerr Scott, Robert Scott, and Meg Scott Phipps—held statewide office. Despite stereotypes about rural white southerners, the Scotts led a populist and progressive movement strongly supported by rural North Carolinians—the so-called Branchhead Boys, the rural grassroots voters who lived at the heads of tributaries throughout the heart of North Carolina.

Though the Scotts held power in various government positions in North Carolina for generations, they were instrumental in their own downfall. From Kerr Scott’s regression into reactionary race politics to Meg Scott Phipps’s corruption trial and subsequent prison sentence, the Scott family lost favor in their home state, their influence dimming and their legacy in question. Weaving together interviews from dozens of political luminaries and deep archival research, Christensen offers an engaging and definitive historical account of not only the Scott family’s legacy but also how race and populism informed North Carolina politics during the twentieth century.

Christensen is a political columnist for the News and Observer in Raleigh.

Call 336-703-2990 or by email walkertownlibrary@gmail.com for more information. No reservation required.

"The Rise and Fall of the Branchhead Boys" with Rob Christensen, Author
Walkertown Branch Library
Tuesday, March 17, 6:30 p.m.

Walkertown Branch Library

2969 Main St. Walkertown, NC 27051

Call (336) 703-2990 for more information.
Click here for driving directions.

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