He was a member of a wealthy political family; his father, James C. Skinner, was a state senator and clerk of the county court, and his grandfather, also named Harry Skinner, had served in both houses of the North Carolina legislature.

[1] He attended Hertford Academy and was graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law at Lexington.

He chaired the Democratic executive committees of the First Congressional District (1880–1890) and of Pitt County (1880–1892).

He was a member of the State central committee (1892–1896) and a trustee of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1890–1896).

He served as United States attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina (1902–1910), after which he resumed the practice of law in Greenville, where he died on May 19, 1929.