White, George Henry, 1852-1918
Biographical notes:
George Henry White (December 18, 1852 – December 28, 1918) was an American attorney and politician, elected as a Republican U.S. Congressman from North Carolina's 2nd congressional district between 1897 and 1901. He later became a banker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in Whitesboro, New Jersey, an African-American community he co-founded. White is the last African-American Congressman during the beginning of the Jim Crow era and the only African American to serve in Congress during his tenure.
In North Carolina, "fusion politics" between the Populist and Republican parties led to a brief period of renewed Republican and African-American political success in elections from 1894 to 1900, when White was elected to Congress for two terms after serving in the state legislature. After the Democratic-dominated state legislature passed a suffrage amendment that disenfranchised blacks in the state, White did not seek a third term. He moved permanently to Washington, D.C., where he had a law practice and became a banker, moving again to Philadelphia in 1906.
After White left office, no other African American served in Congress until 1929. No African American was elected to Congress again from a former Confederate state until Barbara Jordan's election in 1972. No African American was elected to Congress from North Carolina until 1992.
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Subjects:
Occupations:
- Bankers
- Lawyers
- Principals
- Representatives, U.S. Congress
- State Representative
Places:
- NC, US
- District of Columbia, DC, US
- Philadelphia, PA, US
- Columbus County, NC, US
- New Bern, NC, US
