The Forest City Lynching of 1900: Populism, Racism, and White Supremacy in Rutherford County, North Carolina - Paperbackby J. Timothy Cole (Author) Politics in Rutherford County were heated a century ago: the developing textile industry, the growing population, an agricultural crisis and race relations inflamed everyone. Mills Higgins Flack, a leader of the Farmers' Alliance and the county's first Populist in the state House, was allegedly murdered on August 28, 1900, by Avery Mills, an African American. This book documents the murder and the lynching of Avery Mills.