Politician | Religious leader

A leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Tarboro native John C. Dancy was nominated twice as Collector of Customs for the port of Wilmington. President Benjamin Harrison nominated Dancy in 1891, and President William McKinley did so in 1897. In that role, Dancy made more money than most top state officials. That fact did not always sit well many white citizens and some Black citizens.

At the time of the massacre in 1898 Dancy’s name was not on the banishment list, likely because he was a federal official. Additionally, Dancy and a group of prominent Black men confronted Alexander Manly about the editorial that sparked so much outrage. They wanted him to “suspend” the newspaper to quell the bitterness that was growing in the city. Dancy was not in Wilmington during the time of violence, though his family was. They were able to get out of town and join him in Tarboro. Dancy was appointed Register of Deeds for the District of Columbia by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902.

Of note: On November 12, Dancy wrote a letter that was printed in the Wilmington Morning Star under the front-page headline "Dancy's Council to Negroes," asking Black residents to "do nothing that will in the slightest degree inflame new passions or revive the old ones."