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American teacher, lawyer and politician From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Youman Eaton (1866 – June 27, 1928) was an American teacher, lawyer, and politician.
James Youman Eaton was born in 1866 in Louisburg, North Carolina to Thomas R. and Annie Burwell Eaton.[1] His parents were former slaves and after emancipation were economically successful, having acquired 700 acres of land by the mid-1870s.[2] Following graduation from the Boydton Academic and Bible Institute,[3] Eaton earned a bachelor of laws degree from Shaw University in 1894[2] and passed the state bar exam that September.[4] On June 30, 1900, he married Mary Agnes Cooper. They had five children together.[5]
After graduating from law school, Eaton opened a legal practice in Henderson. From 1897 to 1898 he served as a county attorney for Vance County.[6] As a young adult he taught at a school in Townsville and served two years as principal of a school in Buffalo Lithia Springs, Virginia.[7] He was elected as president of the Vance County Colored Teachers' Association at its formation on April 9, 1898.[8] The following year he founded and became principal of the Central Colored Graded School in Henderson.[1]
Eaton was selected to run for a seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives on the Republican ticket in September 1898.[9] He won the seat to represent Vance County in the November election.[10][11] He served in 1899 and 1900.[12] During the 1899 session, in which he was one of only three black representatives,[13] he served on a subcommittee of the legislature's joint Committee of Institutions for the Insane. He proposed four local bills before the House, two of which passed.[2]
Eaton died on June 27, 1928 from heart issues stemming from an illness. A funeral was held for him in Henderson on July 3[14] and his body was interred in a family plot in Blacknall Cemetery. The Eaton-Johnson Middle School in Henderson was partly named in his honor.[1]
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