John W. Winters
John W. Winters | |
---|---|
Member of the Raleigh City Council | |
In office July 3, 1961 – 1967 | |
Member of the North Carolina Senate from the 14th district | |
In office 1975 – July 1, 1977 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Raleigh, North Carolina, United States | January 21, 1920
Died | February 15, 2004 Atlanta, Georgia | (aged 84)
Political party | Democratic Party |
Spouse |
Marie Montaque (m. 1941) |
John Wesley Winters Sr. (January 21, 1920 – February 15, 2004) was an American
Winters was born in 1920 in Raleigh. He spent most of his youth there but moved to New York City to complete his education. He later returned to Raleigh and married, and soon thereafter dropped out of college to take up work after his first child was born. He then worked a series of service jobs before saving up enough money to start his own construction company. After building a few homes, Winters' company took up larger projects and began constructing hundreds of houses. In 1961 Winters competed for a seat on the Raleigh City Council and won, becoming the first black person elected to the body since 1900. He chaired the council's Public Works Committee, developing and implementing a plan which used state funds to pave neglected streets in black neighborhoods. He also served as an adviser to Governor Terry Sanford on matters of race and civil rights. Winters retired from the city council in 1967, but seven years later he was elected to the North Carolina Senate seat from the 14th district. He won reelection two years later, but resigned in July 1977 following his appointment to the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
Early life
John Winters was born on January 21, 1920, in
Business career
Winters initially worked a variety of physically demanding jobs.
In 1957 Winters founded a house construction business, John W. Winters and Company.[3] With the help of lumber supplier Cliff Benson and banker John Hervey Wheeler, he was able to secure the financing and supplies to build three homes by the end of the year.[13] He managed his enterprise during the day and worked night-shifts as a skycap.[14] In 1958 Winters built seven houses. The following year he purchased a 12-acre plot of land from a black family and erected 41 homes. He named the development Madonna Acres.[15] Over time his company's projects expanded; it oversaw the construction of hundreds of homes and several apartment buildings.[7] In the 1980s it built Wintershaven, an affordable housing complex for the elderly, and erected a few small shopping centers in southeast Raleigh.[16] Winters eventually became a millionaire[7] while his company grew to be the largest black-owned real estate firm in North Carolina.[17] He joined the Wake County Homebuilders Association and the National Association of Home Builders.[1] For a time he served as director of the North Carolina Housing Corporation.[18] He was a founding member of the Meadowbrook Country Club, a private organisation meant to serve as an alternative for Raleigh's black affluent men, who were excluded from white clubs.[19] He built its clubhouse.[18]
Political career
Winters' father frequently discussed politics during his childhood.[3] Winters distributed literature for W. Kerr Scott's successful North Carolina gubernatorial campaign in 1948 while delivering dairy (the company he worked for, Melville Daries, was owned by Scott's brother)[14] and he campaigned for Terry Sanford's and John F. Kennedy's successful respective bids for the North Carolina governorship and United States presidency.[20] He was a member of the Raleigh Citizens Association, an organization for black civic leaders. While chairing the organization's Voting and Registration Committee, he participated in efforts to increase registration of black voters.[21][22] At the behest of black community leaders,[23] Winters ran for an at-large seat on the Raleigh City Council in May 1961. Facing 13 other candidates, he placed sixth with 6,168 votes, thus securing one of the seven seats[24] and becoming the first black person to serve on the council since 1900[25] when James Hamlin and Charles Williams served.[26] He was sworn in on July 3.[27]
Governor Sanford frequently sought his advice on race relations and civil rights issues.
In 1972 Winters unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the North Carolina Senate.[38] Two years later he ran as a Democrat for a Senate seat of the 14th district, representing portions of Wake, Lee and Harnett counties.[14][39] He won the election with the support of local blacks and newly arrived white residents[40] and thus, together with Frederick D. Alexander, became the first black elected to the body since the Reconstruction era.[3] He took his seat the following year and served through 1976.[1] Winters served as Chairman of the Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Control and was a member of the Committee on Appropriations, the Appropriations Committee on Education, the Committee on High Education, the Election Laws Committee, the Committee on Human Resources, the Committee on State Government, the Committee on Transportation, the University Board of Governors Committee, and the Ways and Means Committee.[41] During his first term he sponsored two bills.[42] He was subsequently elected to a second term and served until Jim Hunt—then serving as Governor of North Carolina—appointed him to the North Carolina Utilities Commission.[14] He resigned from the Senate on July 1, 1977.[39] Winters campaigned for the United States House of Representatives seat in North Carolina's 4th congressional district in 1984, but lost in the Democratic primary election.[43] He later served on the University of North Carolina Board of Governors.[18]
Death
In his later life Winters suffered from advanced Parkinson's disease. He died on February 15, 2004, in a hospital in Atlanta.[44] In 2007 he was inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame.[45]
Notes
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f Cheney 1977, p. 335.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, p. 86.
- ^ a b c d e f Kickler, Troy L. "John W. Winters, Sr. (1920-2004)". North Carolina History Project. John Locke Foundation. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, pp. 86–87.
- ^ a b c Seder & Burrell 1971, p. 87.
- ^ a b Seder & Burrell 1971, p. 89.
- ^ a b c Seder & Burrell 1971, p. 100.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, p. 84.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, pp. 87–88.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, p. 88.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, p. 93.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, p. 91.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, pp. 93–94.
- ^ a b c d e "Biographies from the 2007 Induction Ceremony Program". Raleigh Hall Of Fame. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, pp. 94–95.
- ^ "Raleigh's first black council member dies". Burlington Times-News. February 18, 2004. p. C4.
- ^ a b "Shaw University Board Member Pledges $25,000". Baptist Informer. Vol. 94, no. 2. February 1972. p. 8.
- ^ a b c Little 2012, p. 80.
- ^ George, Cindy (July 10, 2003). "Minority-Owned Raleigh, N.C.-Area Golf Club Seeks Nonprofit Buyer". The News & Observer.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, p. 95.
- ^ Browning & Burlage 2002, pp. 107–108.
- ^ "Winters Seeks Council Post". The Carolinian. Vol. 20, no. 21. March 4, 1961. pp. 1–2.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, p. 96.
- ProQuest 115303638.
- ^ Johnson 2009, p. 75.
- ^ Rabinowitz 1994, p. 218.
- ^ "J. W. Winters, Others Take Office During Rites Here". The Carolinian. Vol. 20, no. 39. July 8, 1961. p. 1.
- ^ a b Korstad & Leloudis 2011, p. 49.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, pp. 95–96.
- ^ Price, Jay (January 13, 2011). "Ralph Campbell, 64; broke color barrier in state politics". The News & Observer.
- ^ Johnson, Anna (March 7, 2019). "G. Wesley Williams, known to some as 'Mr. Raleigh,' has died". The News & Observer. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
- ProQuest 1670974299.
- ^ Korstad & Leloudis 2011, p. 69.
- ^ Miller, W. Jason (April 4, 2018). "When MLK and the KKK met in Raleigh". The News & Observer. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
- ^ Seder & Burrell 1971, pp. 99–100.
- ^ Grimsley 2003, pp. 64–65.
- ^ Who's who in the south and southwest 1984, p. 829.
- ISSN 0013-0966.
- ^ a b Cheney 1977, p. 334.
- ^ Ayers, B. Drummond Jr. (December 19, 1974). "Indictment of Mayor's Wife Shocks Raleigh". The New York Times. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
- ^ Cheney 1977, pp. 340–341, 343–344, 346–347.
- ^ Journal of the Senate 1976, p. 1159.
- ^ Thompson 2002, p. 17.
- ^ "N.C. black political pioneer dies at 84". Star News Online. February 18, 2004. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
- ProQuest 461609738.
References
- Browning, Joan C.; Burlage, Dorothy Dawson (2002). Deep in Our Hearts: Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820324197.
- Cheney, John L. Jr., ed. (1977). North Carolina Manual. Raleigh: North Carolina Secretary of State. OCLC 1245537.
- Grimsley, Wayne (2003). James B. Hunt: A North Carolina Progressive. McFarland. ISBN 9780786416073.
- Johnson, K. Todd (2009). Historic Wake County (illustrated ed.). HPN Books. ISBN 9781935377108.
- Journal of the Senate of the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina: Second Session 1976. Raleigh: North Carolina Senate. 1976. OCLC 647942741.
- Korstad, Robert R.; Leloudis, James L. (2011). To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: ISBN 9780807895740.
- Little, Margaret Ruth (2012). "Getting the American Dream for Themselves: Postwar Modern Subdivisions for African Americans in Raleigh, North Carolina". Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum. 19 (1) (Spring 2012 ed.): 73–86. .
- Rabinowitz, Howard N. (1994). "Race Relations in Southern and Northern Cities". Race, Ethnicity, and Urbanization: Selected Essays. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 9780826209306.
- Seder, John W.; Burrell, Berkeley G. (1971). Getting It Together: Black Businessmen in America. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 9780151352753.
- Thompson, Dianne T. (2002). Congressional redistricting in North Carolina: reconsidering traditional criteria. LFB Scholarly Publishing. ISBN 9781931202329.
- Who's who in the south and southwest (19th ed.). Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1984. ISBN 9780837908199.