John C. Dancy ( May 8 , 1857 – December 5 , 1920 ) was a politician , journalist , and educator in North Carolina and Washington , DC . For many years he was the editor of African Methodist Episcopal ( AME ) Zion church newspapers '' Star of Zion '' and then '' Zion Quarterly '' . In 1897 he was appointed collector of customs at Wilmington , North Carolina , but was chased out of town in the Wilmington insurrection of 1898 , in part for his activity in the National Afro-American Council which he helped found that year and of which he was an officer . He then moved to Washington , DC where he served as Recorder of Deeds from 1901 to 1910 . His political appointments came in part as a result of the influence of his friend , Booker T. Washington John Campbell Dancy was born a slave in Tarboro , North Carolina on May 8 , 1857 . His father was also named John Campbell Dancy , but he was not called junior , although his son would be . He began attending school after the American Civil War ( 1861 – 1865 ) . In 1873 he began working as an office boy at the Tarboro '' Southerner '' , and within a few months was working as a typographer . However , he faced discrimination on account of his race and soon left the position to enroll in Howard University in Washington , DC . He soon left the school to return home to take care of his family when his father died . Back in North Carolina he briefly taught school , but then was appointed to a position in the United States Treasury Department and returned to the capital , through the influence of John A. Hyman . Less than a year later he resigned to return to Tarbaro to become principal of a school there
Wilmington insurrection of 1898
Wilmington insurrection of 1898
John C. Dancy