Date Died: April 4, 1912

Place Buried: Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, NC

Occupation: Lawyer

Charles Brantley Aycock (1 November 1859 -- 4 April 1912) was the Democratic governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1901 to 1905. During his tenure as governor, he was an advocate for the improvement of the state's public school systems, and following his term in office, he traveled the country promoting educational causes.

Prior to his rise to governorship, Aycock participated as a primary conspirator in the murderous Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, which proved to be the one and only coup d’etat in United States history.

According to John Beck, Wendy Frandsen, and Aaron Randall of Vance-Granville Community College, "Charles B. Aycock--the same Charles B. Aycock who helped lead the White Supremacy Campaign--is generally considered the state’s first progressive governor. Despite Aycock’s unsavory role as a white supremacist, he is still remembered and honored in the state today as the father of public education, and there are few counties in the state where one cannot find a public school named after him."

As governor, Aycock became known as the "Education Governor" for his support of the public school system. It was said that one school was constructed in the state for every day he was in office.

Charles B. Aycock was the youngest of the 10 children of Benjamin and Serena Aycock. His family lived near the present-day town of Fremont, NC, then known as Nahunta. Aycock studied law at the University of North Carolina and opened a practice in Goldsboro, NC after graduating in 1880.

After leaving the governor's office in 1905, he was persuaded to run for the Senate seat held by fellow Democrat Furnifold M. Simmons in 1912. But before the nomination was decided, Aycock died of a heart attack while making a speech to the Alabama Education Association on April 4, 1912.

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