Charles A. Harwood

Charles A. Harwood (1880 – October 23, 1950) was an American lawyer and politician from New York, and Governor of the United States Virgin Islands.

Harwood was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended Hamilton College and New York University. He was admitted to the bar in 1904 and practiced law until 1936.

He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Kings Co., 10th D.) in 1910.

In 1936, he was appointed as a Special Assistant to the United States Attorney General, to help prosecute mail fraud cases. From 1937 to 1938, he was a Judge of the United States District Court for the Canal Zone in Panama. He was Governor of the United States Virgin Islands from February 1941 to January 1946.

President Roosevelt sent Harwood's nomination to the Senate on 6 January 1941, and Harwood assumed office on 3 February. The press noted that Harwood was a long-time friend of the president's. Harwood's predecessor, Laurence Cramer, had been told to resign by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes in December after a controversy. Ickes, who had tagged Congressman Kent Keller for the position, wrote that Harwood called him for the job after consulting with Democratic boss Ed Flynn. By 22 February 1941, Ickes noted in his diary that the appointment had been "a tragic joke."

Virgin Islands historian William Boyer noted that despite being urged to appoint, for the first time, a Negro as island governor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt "chose an old Brooklyn Democrat and former federal judge in the Canal Zone, Charles Harwood, on the recommendation of Bronx political boss Ed Flynn of New York City."

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