Wyatt Outlaw was an African American man who was born in North Carolina around 1820. A resident of Alamance County, he served in the U.S. Army during the Civil War as later became part of the Republican party and the Union League. A member of the Graham Town Council and a constable, Outlaw's prominent place in local governance angered some whites in Alamance. On February 26, 1870 a group of white men, likely Ku Klux Klan members, abducted Outlaw from his home in the middle of the night and lynched him outside the Alamance County Courthouse. The crime, among others that the Klan carried out against African Americans and white republicans, motivated Governor Williams W. Holden to declare martial law in the area. Though many of Outlaw's murderers were identified, none were tried for the crime.