O'Hara, James E. Papers

Biographical Note

James Edward O'Hara (February 26, 1844-September 15, 1905) was born in New York City, the illegitimate son of a West Indian woman and an Irish merchant named O'Hara. Little is known of his youth, much of which he apparently spent in the Danish West Indies. It is not clear when he returned to New York, but in 1862 he visited Union-occupied eastern North Carolina in the company of New York missionaries, and decided to stay permanently.

He taught in a school for freedmen, first in New Bern, then in Goldsboro. His political experience began with work as engrossing clerk to the constitutional convention of 1868 and to the legislature of 1868-69. About this time he moved to Halifax County, a cotton-growing area with a heavy African American population. In 1871 O'Hara spent about two years in Washington D.C. working as a $1200-a-year clerk in the Treasury Department, and also studying law at Howard University. In 1873 he was licensed to practice law in North Carolina.

The next year he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for Congress in the second congressional district, but another African American, John A. Hyman, was chosen. O'Hara served four years (1874-1878) as chairman of the Halifax county board of commissioners and in 1875 he won a seat in the state constitutional convention. O'Hara was one of the Republican candidates for presidential elector in 1876, but he withdrew just before the election because of Republican fears that racial prejudice might reduce the party vote.

Two years later O'Hara won the congressional nomination, but was defeated in a three-way race by Republican internal division and fraudulent vote counting by election officials. His attempts to overturn the victory of Democrat William H. Kitchin in the state courts and in an election contest before the House of Representatives were fruitless.

From 1878 to 1882 he practiced law in the courts of eastern North Carolina and held no public office. His campaign for the congressional nomination in 1880 was a failure. He took an active role in the 1881 state prohibition election, gaining wide public exposure in a bipartisan "wet" coalition.

He was elected to Congress in 1882 after a bitter dispute with incumbent Republican Orlando Hubbs. Both men claimed to be the regular nominee, but Hubbs withdrew before Election Day and O'Hara won virtually without opposition.

O'Hara was re-nominated in 1884 and easily turned back a Democratic challenge from Frederick A. Woodard. By now an important state party leader, he was a delegate-at-large from North Carolina to the Republican national convention of 1884. Republican factionalism frustrated his attempt for a third term in 1886, when a rival African American candidate, Istael B. Abbott, so divided the party vote that Furnifold M. Simmons, Democrat, won the election.

During his tenure in Congress (1883-1887) O'Hara was recognized as a good representative of his district. He showed great concern about issues involving African Americans and their civil rights, perhaps because he was for a brief period the only African American Representative, and since at no time during his two terms were there more than one other African American Congressman. He gained brief national attention in December 1884 for an amendment he offered to the interstate commerce bill forbidding discrimination in interstate passenger travel by rail. In his second term, O'Hara was an active member of the committee on invalid pensions.

For a short time after his retirement from Congress, O'Hara published a newspaper called the Enfield Progress. (Only one issue has been preserved.) About 1890 he moved to New Bern, N. C., where he resumed the practice of law. In 1894 his son, Raphael, joined his father in the New Bern law practice. Although he did not again seek elective office, he retained an interest in Republican party affairs.

O'Hara was married twice, first to Ann Maria Harris on March 16, 1864, later to Elizabeth Eleanor Harris, July 14, 1869. He was a member of the Roman Catholic Church.

The University of Chicago Library received the James E. O'Hara Papers early in 1975, through the offices of Professor John Hope Franklin (John Mathews Manly Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of History), and Eric Anderson, a graduate student working with Professor Franklin. Professor Franklin had become aware of Representative O'Hara's papers over two decades earlier while doing research on Representative John Roy Lynch (Republican from Mississippi, served from 1873 to 1883). Apparently the bulk of the material from Representative O'Hara's Congressional and law offices has either been lost or discarded since that time. Vera Jean O'Hara Rivers, granddaughter of Representative O'Hara, gave what remained the collection to the University.