HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF NORTH CAROLINA, Session of 1903 [caption drop-title].

Raleigh, NC: C. P. Wharton, 1903. Large composite photograph, 10 x 7 inches, mounted on card stock, with the names of the 120 representatives (by number key to the small photograph of each) printed in columns to both sides, including also the hometown and county for each, and an indication of party affiliation (Democrat, Populist, Independent, Republican); all of the representatives were white men. 119 of the portrait photographs (1 x 1 inch) surround a larger photograph (2 x 2 inches) of the term's Speaker, S. M. Gattis of Hillsboro. In the November, 1898, election that saw the Democratic Party return to majority status in both houses of the state assembly, the Fusion Party of Republicans and Populists that included African-American representatives was thoroughly defeated and the election was quickly followed by a local governmental coup, now called the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, when a mob of whites, inflamed by the White Supremacist oratory of the campaigning, ousted that city's government by force of arms. After this election, Democrats reinstated Jim Crow laws disfranchising African-Americans and dominated state politics for the next seventy-plus years. All of the African-American office holders had been defeated, except Thomas Fuller (1867-1942), a Shaw University Graduate and minister, who was elected to the Senate representing Warren and Vance Counties. After his 2-year term expired, North Carolina was served by all-white representation in the last 19th-century house (elected in 1900) and this first 20th-century house; the next African-American to be elected to the assembly was Henry Frye, a former assistant U.S. Attorney, in 1968 (serving through 1980), who also served in the N. C. Senate, 1981-1982, as an associate justice on the N. C. Supreme Court, 1983-1999, and as its Chief Justice, 1999-2001. The representatives for the 1903 session included 100 Democrats, one Populist, one Independent, and 18 Republicans; familiar members included Burton Craige of Salisbury, a long-time public servant, and Henry T. King of Greenville (author of "Sketches of Pitt County"). Apparently not recorded on OCLC or in other online or print reference or bibliographical sources (N. C. State Archives holds a similar photograph by Wharton, for the house members of the 1899 session, UNC holds one for Senate members, for the 1895 session, and we know of another one, also for Senate members, for the 1899 session). Verso contains some genealogical information concerning one of the house members, J. F. Walters, a Democrat from Blanche in Caswell County. Mount is toned, otherwise very good. Matted glazed and framed (not examined out of frame). (10366). Item #63815

Cyrus P. Wharton (1852-1929) operated a photography studio in Greensboro by himself, 1883-1886, and in Raleigh, North Carolina, first by himself, 1886-1905, and then in partnership with Manley W. Tyree, 1905-1912, producing primarily studio work, portraits of brides, society women, distinguished men and families, etc., although the North Carolina State Archives holds a collection of his glass plate negatives that also include group portraits (e.g., baseball teams) and some images of people at work and interiors of local businesses.

Price: $450.00

See all items in African-Americana, Americana