Wiley Baker

Wiley Baker (1850 or 1851 – ?) was a state legislator in North Carolina. He represented Northampton County in the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1883.^[1][2][3]

He was born in 1850 or 1851 and educated following the American Civil War.^[4] He was African American.^[4] A farmer who lived in Dogwood, North Carolina,^[5] he also served as a county official.^[6] He was one of a few Republicans – alongside William Belcher, Turner Speller, and Edward H. Sutton, among others – who generally opposed the creation of public schools for white cities in counties with significant black populations.^[4] He served on a committee for the state's Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Asylum alongside Jacob Montgomery, James Harris, and William Johnson.^[4]

There is no record of his life after the 1890s, and he may have died outside of North Carolina.^[4]

See also

• African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction era
• List of first African-American U.S. state legislators

References

1. Woodson, Carter Godwin; Logan, Rayford Whittingham (December 8, 1920). "The Journal of Negro History". Association for the Study of Negro Life and History – via Google Books.
2. Simmons-Henry, Linda (December 8, 1990). The Heritage of Blacks in North Carolina. North Carolina African American Heritage Foundation. ISBN 9780912081120 – via Google Books.
3. "National Roster of Black Elected Officials". Joint Center for Political Studies. December 8, 1976 – via Google Books.
4. Justesen, Benjamin R. (2009). ""The Class of '83": Black Watershed in the North Carolina General Assembly". North Carolina Historical Review. 86 (3): 282–308. JSTOR 23523861.
5. Carolina, North (December 8, 1883). "Laws and Resolutions of the State of North Carolina, Passed by the General Assembly at Its Session". J. Turner, Jr. – via Google Books.
6. "The North Carolina Historical Review". North Carolina Historical Commission. December 8, 2009 – via Google Books.