"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : GEORGE HENRY WHITE

Sometime ago, I read an article on the internet entitled,”The Negroes Temporary Farewell.” Well, I searched on Google for the article this past weekend, but could not find it. Nevertheless, the article was about how when a Negro representative from North Carolina by the name of “George Henry White” gave his farewell speech on the floor of the U.S. Congress in 1901. You see, George was the last Negro to serve in the U.S. Congress for almost “3 whole decades!”Therefore, for almost 30 years, there were no Negro representatives serving in the U.S. Congress. A Negro serving in Congress from the North would have to wait until 1928, before another Negro would serve again. In 1928, a Negro by the name of Oscar S. De’Priest was elected to represent the First Congressional District of Illinois. As for the election of a Negro representative from the South, there was not another Negro elected to Congress until 1972, after federal civil rights legislation was passed in 1965 to enforce constitutional voting and civil rights for citizens. Now, how many of you all are just learning about this piece of American history? It is my hope that more Black People will read my articles and want to learn more about the Black History that’s not being disseminated at the schools in our Black Communities. Ok, this week’s Black Pioneer is George Henry White. George was born on December 18, 1852, in Rosindale, North Carolina. After the American Civil War, public schools were setup for Negro children. In 1870, George met a teacher by the name of David P. Allen. Mr. Allen took a liking to George and encouraged him to learn. When Mr. Allen moved to a place called Lumberton to establish a school, George decided to go with him. Mr. Allen started the Whitin Normal School. In 1874, George enrolled in Howard University. He graduated from Howard in 1877 and went back to North Carolina, where he was hired as a principal at a school. Some of his accomplishments included serving as a legal apprentice under former Superior Court Judge William J. Clarke, being admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1879, being elected to serve in the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1880, and his being elected to to the U.S. Congress in 1896. Additionally, he founded a commercial Black-Owned Bank in 1906, and he co-founded the Black town of “Whitesboro” in Southern New Jersey. In 1917, he became the first Negro from Pennsylvania to be selected as an alternate delegate at-large to the Republican National Convention. Furthermore, he was a member of the National Negro Business League and the NAACP. On December 28, 1918, George Henry White died at his home in Philadelphia.