Columnist says Sir Walter Raleigh image doesn't belong with bluegrass festival

Abby Lee Hood, of Nashville, Tenn., who is a former employee of the International Bluegrass Music Association, which has hosted the event in Raleigh for several years, said the city's namesake "was no angel."

Raleigh was the chief sponsor of the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island, the first English settlement in America that mysteriously disappeared in 1590.

But Hood said that Raleigh, like Christopher Columbus and other figures in American history, was a colonizer who subjugated and killed Indigenous people.

"It seemed to me there was a lack of conversation about colonizers and bluegrass," she said Monday.

Hood also cited Raleigh's bloody suppression of a 1580 rebellion in Ireland in which many rebels were beheaded.

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Because of his checkered history, she said, the IBMA should drop his likeness from its marketing.

"I do think, when you have an organization that is making money off the image of a problematic figure, then it's time to think about what we can do about that," she said.

Raleigh city officials declined to comment on the column, referring questions to the IBMA. A spokesman for the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau said his organization has no opinion on Sir Walter Raleigh.

Local residents, however, stood up for him.

"To me, it's not going to really solve anything or change anything," Patricia Barr said of dropping his likeness. "It's going to make a few people feel better."

"He is a pretty solidly villainous name, I suppose, in Ireland. I'm half Irish, so I've known about him," Fiana Paul said, adding that she sees no problem of the bluegrass festival using his image.

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Still, the organization said in a statement that, in January, its branding was "updated to create cohesiveness across the many events ... and Sir Walter Raleigh does not appear in it."