Henry G. Connor
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Henry Groves Connor (1852-1924) was a North Carolina politician and jurist.
Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, Connor read law and practiced in Wilson, North Carolina. He was elected to a term in the North Carolina Senate and served as a state superior court judge from 1885-1893.
In 1898, he took part in the "White Supremacy" campaign, traveling the state to speak on behalf of the Democratic Party. According to an official state report on the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, "Connor’s correspondence and speeches repeatedly indicated that he was 'willing to go a very long way to remove the negro from the politics of the state' as he was 'managing a campaign of which I shall never be ashamed.' Although definitely on the side of white supremacy, Connor reflected the concerns of conservative Democrats when he hoped 'that the present conditions may pass away without violence or bloodshed and that our whole people may be wiser and understand each other better.' He fully felt that once the Democrats regained power over the state, they should earnestly seek to improve the lives and education of blacks."[1]
In that campaign, Connor was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives from Wilson County and was rewarded by his fellow Democrats with the post of Speaker in the new legislature.
Connor later served as an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1903 until 1909. In that year, President William H. Taft appointed him to the United States District Court for eastern North Carolina. Connor held that judgeship until his death in Wilson on November 23, 1924.
He had three sons: George Whitfield Connor, who followed him onto the state Supreme Court; H. G. Connor, Jr., a lawyer and legislator; and Robert Digges Wimberly Connor, secretary of the North Carolina Historical Commission, professor at the University of North Carolina, and later the first Archivist of the United States.
Connor was a published author. Among his works were biographies of John Archibald Campbell,[2] James Iredell, and William Gaston.[3]
