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64-578: Led by A.M.E. Zion Bishop Alexander Walters , who was president for most of the Council's existence, the Council attracted a wide range of African-American journalists, lawyers, educators, politicians, and community activists to its annual meetings. The Council was the brainchild of New York journalist Timothy Thomas Fortune , whose earlier attempt—the National Afro-American League —had failed to generate momentum, and disappeared in

128-566: A Democratic -Populist fusionist candidate had drawn off votes from Woodard. In addition, the 1894 legislature had repealed some laws which Democrats had used to restrict black voting, and the turnout in 1896 among black voters was 85 percent. In 1898, White was re-elected in a three-way race. In a period of increasing disenfranchisement of blacks in the South, he was the last of five African Americans who were elected and served in Congress during

192-627: 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. In North Carolina, "fusion politics" between

256-601: A Philadelphia chapter in 1913. In 1912, White was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress from Pennsylvania's 1st congressional district , following the death of the incumbent congressman. In 1916, he became the first African American from Pennsylvania to be selected as an alternate delegate at-large to the Republican National Convention. In 1917, White was appointed assistant city solicitor for Philadelphia following

320-588: A Republican candidate from New Bern and was elected to a single term in the North Carolina House of Representatives . He helped pass a law creating four state normal schools for African Americans in order to train more teachers, and was appointed in 1881 as the principal of one of the schools in New Bern. He helped develop the school in its early years and encourage students to go into teaching. In 1884, White returned to politics, winning election to

384-505: A certain date were exempted form the literacy requirement. African Americans were unable to qualify for the exemption. The court test, known as Ryanes v. Gleason , was expected to be taken all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but was eventually dropped, after an unfavorable ruling in the Louisiana Supreme Court. The Council was designed as an umbrella group, with membership based on organizational affiliation—either in

448-684: A future political rival. White and Cora had three children: Mary Adelyne, called "Mamie;" Beatrice Odessa (who died young); and George Henry White, Jr. Three of White's four children survived to adulthood: Della died in 1916 in Washington, D.C., followed by George Jr., who died in Pittsburgh in 1927. Mamie died in New York City in 1974. His wife, Cora Lena White, died in 1905. In 1915, George White married Ellen Avant Macdonald of North Carolina, who survived him. In 1880, White ran as

512-772: A great influence. He then served pastorates in Indianapolis , Louisville, San Francisco , Portland, Oregon , Chattanooga , and Knoxville, Tennessee , before his assignment to Mother Zion Church in New York City in 1888. In 1889, Walters was selected to represent the Zion Church in London at the World's Sunday School Convention, and went on to visit other parts of Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land. In May 1892, he

576-649: A laborer at the Treasury Department. In 1874, White started studies at Howard University , founded in 1867 in Washington, D.C. as a historically black college open to men and women of all races. He studied classical subjects to be certified as a schoolteacher. In addition, he worked for five months at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, which had visitors from around the world, and got to see something of its thriving black community, some of whose ancestors had been free since shortly after

640-406: 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. White

704-442: A local or state branch of the Council or through an affiliated organization, school, or newspaper. Officers were elected annually at the meetings, and consisted of a president, nine vice presidents, several secretaries, a treasurer, and a national organizer, among others. In addition, a large national executive committee was composed of three members from each U.S. state or territory, including one female member from each. The Council

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768-516: A plan based on reducing representation based on total state illiteracy rates, as he believed that illiterates would fail the education or literacy tests. While his plan earned much discussion, his bill was tabled. A reduction effort in 1902 also failed. White used the power of his office to appoint several African-American postmasters across his district, with the assistance of the state's Republican senator, Jeter C. Pritchard . They were able to make patronage hires, as did other postmasters. Following

832-594: A speech while the House considered the bill. It narrowly passed the House in July but languished in the Senate; it was eventually filibustered by southern Democrats, overwhelmed by debate on silver coinage to relieve economic strain in rural areas. During his tenure, White worked for African-American civil rights and consistently highlighted issues of justice, relating discussions on the economy, foreign policy and colonization to

896-620: A well-established African American community, then experiencing significant growth due to the Great Migration . During this time White practiced law and founded a commercial savings bank. White was a co-founder of the town of Whitesboro in southern New Jersey as a planned community developed for African Americans. He worked with prominent investors such as Booker T. Washington , president of Tuskegee Institute; and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar ; along with two daughters of Judge Mifflin W. Gibbs: Ida Gibbs Hunt and Harriet Gibbs Marshall. White

960-634: A young local woman of mixed race and the granddaughter of Benjamin Spaulding . Born into slavery as the son of a slave mother and a white plantation owner, Benjamin had been freed by his father as a young man. As a free man of color , Spaulding worked to acquire more than 2,300 acres of pine woods, which he apportioned to his own large family. In 1860, the White family lived on a farm in Welches Creek township, Columbus County . Because George White

1024-538: The American Revolutionary War , when Pennsylvania abolished slavery. White finished at Howard in 1877 and returned to North Carolina, where he was hired as a principal at a school in New Bern . He also read the law , studying it in the city as a legal apprentice under former Superior Court Judge William J. Clarke, who had become a Republican after the war and founded a newspaper. In 1879 White

1088-450: The Jim Crow era of the later nineteenth century. There were two from South Carolina, Cheatham before him from North Carolina, and one from Virginia. After them, no African Americans would be elected from the South until 1972, after federal civil rights legislation was passed in 1965 to enforce constitutional voting and civil rights for citizens. No African Americans were elected to Congress from North Carolina until 1992. Republicans since

1152-578: The National Afro-American Council , the nation's largest civil rights organization, at the age of 40, serving in that post for most of the next decade. Walters was born August 1, 1858, in Bardstown, Kentucky, the oldest son of Henry and Harriet Walters. He was educated at a private school taught by a number of teachers. In 1871 he moved to Louisville , where he worked as a waiter in private homes, hotels, and on steamboats. He

1216-826: The Niagara Movement , and the National Negro American Political League—failed to materialize, the Council faded away. Walters became president of yet another new grouping, the National Independent Political League , and eventually joined the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), formed by 1910. Many other former leaders of the Council, including Du Bois, George White, Mary Church Terrell, and Archibald Grimké, also helped form

1280-482: The North Carolina Senate from Craven County . He was one of two black senators in the 1885 session along with R. S. Taylor . In 1886, he was elected solicitor and prosecuting attorney for the second judicial district of North Carolina, a post he held for eight years until 1894. While considering running for Congress, White had deferred to his brother-in-law Henry Plummer Cheatham , who was elected to

1344-608: The Pan-African Association , and visited West Africa in 1910 and the Caribbean in 1911. A well-respected figure internationally, he declined an offer in 1915 by US President Woodrow Wilson to become US minister to Liberia . Walters died on February 2, 1917, in New York City, of natural causes. His funeral was at Zion Church; his eulogy was said by Bishop G. W. Clinton, while services were conducted by Bishop J. S. Caldwell and assisted by Rev J. W. Brown. Walters

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1408-577: 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

1472-660: The Wilmington coup of 1898 in North Carolina, White and two dozen other representatives from the National Afro-American Council met with McKinley and unsuccessfully pressed him to speak out against lynching. On January 20, 1900, White introduced the first bill in Congress to make lynching a federal crime to be prosecuted by federal courts. He argued that the majority of lynchings punished consensual sex between black men and white women, and that far more white men assaulted black women. An editorial by Josephus Daniels in

1536-417: The 1880s had been calling for federal oversight of elections, to try to halt the discriminatory abuses in the South. Representative Henry Cabot Lodge and Senator George Hoar led a renewed effort in early 1890, when Lodge introduced a Federal Elections Bill to enforce provisions of the 15th Amendment giving citizens the right to vote. Henry Cheatham was the only black Congressman at the time and never gave

1600-561: The 1920s and 1930s and, later, a composer. His most successful composition was the song "Pass Me By" (1946), with lyrics by Mercer Ellington . It was recorded by Lena Horne , Carmen McRae and Peggy Lee . Bishop Walters is buried in Brooklyn , New York, in Mother Zion's Cypress Hills Cemetery . George Henry White George Henry White (December 18, 1852 – December 28, 1918) was an American attorney and politician, elected as

1664-554: The Colored Democratic Organization." In 1908, Walters refused an offer by W. E. B. Du Bois to merge the council with the Niagara Movement and two other organizations. Walters angered many black followers by endorsing Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan in 1908. The council soon dissolved, but Walters wasted little time seeking a new power base, emerging as president of

1728-586: The Council convened in Louisville, Kentucky , followed by St. Louis (1904), Detroit (1905), and New York City (1906). Its final meeting was held in 1907 at Baltimore, Maryland . Walters, who served as president until 1902, was succeeded that year by Fortune. Fortune then served until his resignation in 1904, although William A. Pledger served as acting president in 1903. Fortune was followed by first vice president William Henry Steward of Kentucky, who served until Walters's reelection in 1905. Bishop Walters

1792-402: The Council's existence were Professor W. E. B. Du Bois , who chaired the business bureau from 1899 to 1901; former Louisiana Gov. P. B. S. Pinchback , literary bureau (1899); Archibald H. Grimké , literary (1907); Wells-Barnett, Mrs. Terrell, and newspaper publisher George L. Knox, each of whom chaired the anti-lynching bureau; and William T. Vernon , a future U.S. Treasury Register who chaired

1856-603: The February 2 issue of the News and Observer responded with personal attacks against White, and claimed he was justifying assaults on white women by slandering white men. The bill died in committee, opposed by southern white Democrats, who were making up the Solid South block. A month later, as the House was debating issues of territorial expansion internationally, White again defended his bill by giving examples of crimes in

1920-717: The Senators the matter of Confirmation of colored men for it would greatly handicap us in the Fall Campaign and would be all the Republicans would want to use against us to be able to say for certainty that Democratic Senators will not confirm colored men. We will not insist on the nomination of a colored man for the Recorder of Deeds but we do think, that a similar office carrying about the same salary should be given us...To surrender would destroy our chances of building up

1984-569: The South. He said that conditions in the region had to "provoke questions about ... national and international policy." He said, Should not a nation be just to all her citizens, protect them alike in all their rights, on every foot of her soil, in a word, show herself capable of governing all within her domain before she undertakes to exercise sovereign authority over those of a foreign land—with foreign notions and habits not at all in harmony with our American system of government? Or, to be more explicit, should not charity first begin at home? Following

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2048-590: The Tuskegee orbit, hoping to attract new members and bring back older members who had grown disenchanted, such as Du Bois, McGhee, and others. Despite well-publicized meetings in New York in 1906 and Baltimore in 1907, however, the Council failed to stabilize and soon collapsed, due to internal friction and lack of revenue. After a proposed merger between the Council and three other groups—the Negro Academy ,

2112-522: The US House in 1890. White was a delegate to the 1896 and 1900 Republican National Conventions . In 1896, he was elected to the U.S. Congress representing the predominantly black Second District from his residence in Tarboro . He defeated the white Democratic incumbent Frederick A. Woodard . The Republican president William McKinley carried many on his coattails, but White also benefited because

2176-492: The actions of North Carolina Democrats in 1899, who passed a suffrage amendment to the state constitution to disenfranchise blacks , White chose not to seek a third term in the 1900 elections. He told the Chicago Tribune , "I cannot live in North Carolina and be a man and be treated as a man." He announced plans to leave his home state and start a law practice in Washington, DC at the end of his term. White also blamed

2240-545: The confirmation of African-Americans nominated for federal office by Wilson. Writing to Wilson, after that meeting Walters said: "After leaving the White House the idea occurred to me that it might be a good thing to see the Senators who have declared themselves opposed to the Confirmation of colored men who are nominated by yourself for office." He continues: "If you have not any objection, I would like to take up with

2304-822: The continued newspaper attacks on his character, claiming that these had ruined the health of his wife. I am certain the excitement of another campaign would kill her...My wife is a refined and educated woman, and she has suffered terribly because of the attacks on me. White delivered his final speech in the House on January 29, 1901: This is perhaps the Negroes' temporary farewell to the American Congress, but let me say, Phoenix -like he will rise up some day and come again. These parting words are in behalf of an outraged, heart-broken, bruised and bleeding, but God-fearing people; faithful, industrious, loyal, rising people – full of potential force. On March 4, 1901, at

2368-613: The core of the new NAACP, while others joined the new National Urban League . Alexander Walters Bishop Alexander Walters (August 1, 1858 – February 2, 1917) was an American clergyman and civil rights leader. Born enslaved in Bardstown, Kentucky , just before the Civil War , he rose to become a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church at the age of 33, then president of

2432-592: The country signed the letter, which was published in Fortune's New York Age . Some of them attended the organizational meeting in September 1898 in Rochester, following the dedication of a statue to the late abolitionist leader, Frederick Douglass . The meeting endorsed creation of a non-partisan Council, to be supported by annual dues payments and based on the ideals expressed by the earlier League. Bishop Walters

2496-460: The country, Walters asked Fortune to publish a nationwide appeal for a meeting of African-American leaders. More than 150 leaders from across the country signed the call, which resulted in an organizational meeting in Rochester, New York , in September 1898, also attended by Susan B. Anthony and the widow of Frederick Douglass . The new National Afro-American Council was intended to replicate

2560-639: The early 1890s. The Council was formed against a backdrop of violent lynchings and of increasing disfranchisement of African-American voters in the South. Alarmed by the lynchings and racial discrimination against African Americans, Bishop Walters circulated a national letter of appeal in the spring of 1898, just weeks after the brutal murder of African-American postmaster Frazier B. Baker in Lake City, South Carolina by an armed mob of whites. "It becomes absolutely necessary that we organize to protect ourselves," Walters wrote, and more than 150 leaders from across

2624-525: The education bureau in 1902. Among notable members of the national executive committee were Booker T. Washington of Alabama (1902); federal official John P. Green (1898) and professor William S. Scarborough (1900) of Ohio; anti-Tuskegee activist William Monroe Trotter of Massachusetts; former congressman George W. Murray and future U.S. minister to Liberia William D. Crum of South Carolina (1900); future U.S. minister to Liberia John R. A. Crossland of Missouri (1900); Henry O. Flipper of New Mexico (1901),

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2688-613: The executive committee. Beginning in Washington, D.C. , in December 1898, the Council met in large cities around the country, attracting large audiences of African-American journalists, clergymen, lawyers, educators, and community activists. Its officers included a wide range of influential African-American men and women. The Council met in Chicago (1899), Indianapolis (1900), and Philadelphia (1901), each time re-electing Walters to

2752-423: The first black graduate of West Point ; and U.S. Treasury Register Judson W. Lyons of Georgia (1900). The Council came under the influence of Booker T. Washington in 1902, after Washington engineered the selection of Fortune as president, but quickly lost its earlier effectiveness and grew dormant. After the emergence of the Niagara Movement in 1905, Walters attempted to rejuvenate the Council and distance it from

2816-665: The moment that White's term formally ended, white legislators in Raleigh celebrated. North Carolina Democrat A. D. Watts announced: George H. White, the insolent negro... has retired from office forever. And from this hour on no negro will again disgrace the old State in the council of chambers of the nation. For these mercies, thank God." Watts was appointed as the first state Department of Revenue Secretary in 1921, resigning in 1923, after police caught him with an African-American prostitute. Following White's departure, no other African-American served in Congress until Oscar De Priest

2880-454: The national executive committee. The Council lobbied actively for the passage of a federal anti-lynching law and raised funds to finance a court test against the new Louisiana constitution's provision effectively disfranchising most of that state's black voters, under the terms of its so-called "grandfather clause." Men judged to be illiterate were deprived of suffrage rights, but white voters with ancestors who had been registered to vote before

2944-723: The new National Independent Political League . In the 1910s, he became a member of both the new National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League . Walters traveled abroad frequently, including frequent trips to London, where he attended the First Pan-African Conference in 1900 (giving a paper entitled "The Trials and Tribulations of the Coloured Race in America"), and becoming President of

3008-413: The old League. Its constitution declared the Council nonpartisan in nature, and envisioned a structure of state and local councils, gathered together in annual meetings with delegates from affiliated organizations, schools, and newspapers, to protest against racial injustice and discrimination and to lobby for protective laws. Walters was elected the first president, while Fortune became the first chairman of

3072-458: The overwhelming majority of its members were Republicans, the Council also boasted an active minority of black Democrats, in an unusual arrangement facilitated by the group's constitution, which mandated the nonpartisan nature of its proceedings and activities. It was among the first national organizations to welcome women members and treat them equally with men; many of the national officers were women, and at least one woman from every state served on

3136-492: The presidency and adopting outspoken, occasionally radical resolutions. At the meeting in Saint Paul, Minnesota , in 1902, Walters stepped aside to become chairman of the executive committee, and Fortune was promoted to president. A protégé of Booker T. Washington , Fortune began to steer the Council away from the independent course favored by Walters, and the Council soon slid into dormancy. Walters bided his time, regaining

3200-495: The presidency in Detroit in 1905, after issuing an appeal to old members to return. He was reelected at New York (1906) and Baltimore (1907), but the Council, now under the control of militant members of the Niagara Movement , gradually lost its cohesiveness and stability. Walters' prominence had grown to such a level that on January 10, 1916, he met with President Woodrow Wilson at the White House to discuss how best to obtain

3264-479: The teacher David P. Allen, who encouraged him. Allen moved to Lumberton , where he established the Whitin Normal School . White studied academic courses there for a couple of years, including Latin , and boarded with Allen and his family. He saved money by running the family farm for a year for his father. Wiley White left the family for Washington, D.C. , in 1872 and worked for nearly two decades as

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3328-418: The treatment of blacks in the South. He supported an effort for reduction legislation derived from the 14th Amendment, to reduce apportionment of Congressional delegations in proportion to the voting population that states were illegally disenfranchising. He challenged the House in 1899 and again after the 1900 census to proceed with reduction legislation. Representative Edgar Dean Crumpacker of Indiana, who

3392-573: Was valedictorian of his high school class in 1875. Within two years, he was licensed to preach by the A.M.E. Zion Quarterly Conference. He started out as a circuit minister, first serving the Corydon Circuit and then in 1881 the Cloverport Circuit where he founded five new churches. As a circuit minister he supplemented his income as a teacher in black schools. One of his students was Joseph Seamon Cotter, Sr. with whom he had

3456-419: Was admitted to the North Carolina bar . On February 27, 1879, White married Fannie B. Randolph, who was the daughter of John H Randolph, Jr, and Della Redmond Randolph. She died in September 1880, soon after the birth of their daughter Della. In 1882 he married Nancy J. Scott, who died the same year. On March 15, 1887, he married Cora Lena Cherry. Her sister Louisa was married to Henry Plummer Cheatham ,

3520-485: Was an early officer in the National Afro-American Council , a nationwide civil rights organization created in 1898. He served several terms as one of nine national vice presidents, and was twice an unsuccessful candidate for the Council's presidency. After the Council dissolved in 1908, he became an early member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People founded that year. It formed

3584-469: Was born in 1852 in Rosindale , Bladen County, North Carolina , where his natural mother may have been a slave. His father Wiley Franklin White was a free person of color , of African and Scots-Irish ancestry, who worked as a laborer in a turpentine camp. George had an older brother John, and their father may have purchased their freedom. In 1857 George's father Wiley White married Mary Anna Spaulding,

3648-467: Was considered the nation's premier organization of African Americans, and met regularly with U.S. President William McKinley until his death in 1901. Its meetings were given extensive coverage by local newspapers, both mainstream dailies and African-American weeklies, in each host city. The Council met in Chicago (1899), Indianapolis (1900), Philadelphia (1901), and Saint Paul, Minnesota (1902). In 1903,

3712-427: Was elected as president, after Fortune declined to serve; other officers included journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett of Chicago, secretary, and federal customs official John C. Dancy of North Carolina, first vice president. The annual meetings began three months later in Washington, D.C., and were held each year thereafter in a large American city, attracting a vibrant cross-section of African-American leaders. Although

3776-860: Was elected bishop of the Seventh District of the General Conference of the A.M.E. Zion Church, meeting in Pittsburgh . While in New York, he became acquainted with journalist Timothy Thomas Fortune , who was in the process of organizing his National Afro-American League , designed to protect African Americans against lynching and racial discrimination. Walters immediately endorsed the League, which met in early 1890 in Knoxville, but went defunct by 1893. In March 1898, alarmed by an upsurge in violent lynchings of African Americans across

3840-410: Was elected from Illinois in 1928. No African-American North Carolinian was elected to Congress until Eva Clayton and Mel Watt won seats in the House of Representatives in 1992. White returned to law and entered banking, having moved his family to Washington DC, in 1900. White was wealthy with a net worth of $ 30,000 in 1902. In 1906 the White family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , a city with

3904-565: Was married three times, and had six children. His first wife, Katie Knox Walters, died in 1896; his second wife, Emeline Virginia Byrd Walters, died in 1902. He was survived by his third wife, Lelia Coleman Walters. Just his death, his wife was employed as a clerk for the United States Bureau of Immigration on Ellis Island . The couple's son, Hillis Walters (1904–1984), was an actor during the Harlem Renaissance in

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3968-557: Was on the Select Committee of the Census, had introduced a reduction measure that got the most attention, but it was reported out of committee in 1899 too late for action. In 1901 he introduced another measure. His bill proposed to penalize Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina, which had approved state constitutions disenfranchising blacks. (They were followed by other southern states through 1908.) He proposed

4032-423: Was so young when Mary Anna joined the family, he always thought of her as his mother. She and his father had more children together, his half-siblings. George White probably first attended an "old field school", paid for by subscription. After the American Civil War , the Reconstruction era state legislature established the first public schools for black children in the state. At Welches Creek in 1870, White met

4096-983: Was then reelected in 1906 and 1907. Early officers in the Council included the nation's only black congressman, Rep. George Henry White (R-N.C.), who served several terms as vice president and sought twice, unsuccessfully, to be elected president; Bishop Benjamin W. Arnett of Ohio and attorney William H. Lewis of Boston, both vice presidents; attorney Fredrick L. McGhee of Minnesota, who held several offices; Ida B. Wells -Barnett, first secretary and national organizer; journalists William A. Pledger, Harry Clay Smith , and Christopher Perry, all vice presidents; future U.S. minister to Liberia Ernest Lyon of Maryland, Washington, D.C., orator and activist Mary Church Terrell , and Philadelphia activist Gertrude Mossell, all vice presidents. The Council's functional bureaus conducted much of its ongoing work between annual meetings, including work in education, business, anti-lynching activities, and legislation. Among many bureau directors during

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