Curtis Hooks Brogden (November 6, 1816 – January 5, 1901) was an American farmer, attorney and politician who served as the 42nd governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1874 to 1877 during the Reconstruction era.
Building a close friendship with editor William Woods Holden of the North Carolina Standard, he served nearly without a break in various state offices and lastly as US Congressman, until essentially retiring from politics in 1878.
He was born on November 6, 1816, in the Brogden family home ten miles southwest of Goldsboro, North Carolina, the son of a yeoman farmer.
[2] Although he attended the local district schools, like most North Carolina farm boys of his generation, his opportunity for higher education was limited, but Brogden was an auto-didact, learning by his own studies.
Brogden continued the family tradition of military service and joined the North Carolina state militia at the age of 18.
During the Civil War he served the Confederate cause although he never held a field command due to his position in the North Carolina state government that kept him in Raleigh for the duration of the conflict.
Concerned that Southern states passed Black Codes restricting freedmen, they passed the Military Reconstruction Acts to temporarily replace state governments and try to remake the societies to incorporate full emancipation of African-American slaves, establish free labor and other rights of citizens for blacks.
These measures were opposed by most whites in the South, although North Carolina had extended the franchise to free blacks before rescinding it in 1835, following Nat Turner's slave rebellion.
In North Carolina before the war, blacks made up about one-third of the population of the state, with a majority in the coastal areas and near parity in some Piedmont counties.
By then, white Democrats had regained control of the state legislature, in part by a program of suppression of black voting carried out by the Red Shirts.
During his term as governor, Brogden made a stronger attempt to work with the Democrats who controlled the legislature than his Republican predecessors, and focused on railroad construction and higher education.
During his tenure as governor, the federal government completed the Currituck Beach Lighthouse to light the last remaining dark stretch of coastline along North Carolina's Outer Banks, long known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic in 1875.
In a House controlled by Republicans and independents, he spoke in favor of changing the centralized, indirect system of county government the Democrats had instituted ten years before in order to “save” Eastern North Carolina from “Negro rule.” The House passed a bill changing the system, but the Senate rejected it.
Brogden, a lifelong bachelor, died on January 5, 1901, in his hometown of Goldsboro, North Carolina and is buried there in Willowdale Cemetery.
Willis claimed he struck the man, who died of his injuries weeks later, in the head with a billy club in self defense after being attacked with a knife.
After he was sentenced to six years in the penitentiary, counsel moved to appeal the case and Willis was released from jail on $5000.00 bond (equal to approximately $140,000.00 in 2019) provided by ex-Governor Brogden.