Jordan H. Dancy.

Jordan H. Dancy. Dancy was one of the first African Americans to be elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1896. He represented the Tarboro District in the legislature for two years before the Wilmington Race Riots disenfranchised African Americans.

His granddaughter, Mittie Miller, said that he was born into slavery in 1860 and emancipated at five-years-old after the Emancipation Proclamation was ratified in December of 1865.

“He didn’t like the way that blacks were being treated and he wanted to do something about it,” Miller said. “That’s what made him go into politics and to study law.”

Dancy studied law at Shaw University, North Carolina’s oldest HBCU. After the Wilmington Race Riots ended his career in politics, Dancy went to St. Augustine’s College to study ministry.

Over the course of his lifetime, Dancy was not only a politician but also a single father, brick mason, minister, teacher, and founder of the Union Baptist Church in Tarboro.

“I do remember my mom and her sister saying that he used to go from Tarboro to Raleigh for the legislative sessions on horse and buggy,” Miller said.

Dancy’s outstanding legacy came to an end when he passed away on April 21, 1934, at the age of 75. However, his descendants went on to achieve remarkable things, too.

Source: Black History in Edgecombe County.