George Henry White
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 was 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.
George Henry White | |
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 2nd district | |
In office March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1901 | |
Preceded by | Frederick A. Woodard |
Succeeded by | Claude Kitchin |
Personal details | |
Born | Rosindale, North Carolina, U.S. | December 18, 1852
Died | December 28, 1918 66) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | (aged
Political party | Republican |
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, and there wasn't an African American elected to Congress from North Carolina again until Eva Clayton in 1992.