George Henry White
| George Henry White | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 2nd district |
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In office March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1901 |
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| Preceded by | Frederick A. Woodard |
| Succeeded by | Claude Kitchin |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 18, 1852 Rosindale, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | December 28, 1918 (aged 66) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
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 of which he was a co-founder. 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 was elected to serve in Congress until Oscar De Priest from Chicago, Illinois in 1928. African Americans were essentially excluded from politics in the South, where they constituted a majority in numerous districts. No African American was elected to Congress again from North Carolina until 1992. The Democrats had regained control of the state legislature in the 1870s, but black candidates continued to be elected from some districts and locally. After disenfranchisement was achieved in new state constitutions and laws from 1890 to 1908, no African American would be elected to Congress from the South until Barbara Jordan from Texas and Andrew Young from Georgia in 1972 following the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 during the Civil Rights Movement.
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