In 1878, he ran for Congress and won, but his white opponent was ruled the winner by corrupt public officials.

In 1882, O'Hara was elected as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina's 2nd congressional district, where there was a black majority.

[2] Soon after James was born, his parents moved the family to the West Indies, where they lived into the 1850s before returning to New York.

[3] After the American Civil War, O'Hara moved to North Carolina with missionaries of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, an independent black denomination founded in New York City.

[citation needed] During his early years in North Carolina, he "read the law" as a legal apprentice.

[5] Halifax and nearby counties of the northeast part of the state had black majorities, and were included within North Carolina's 2nd congressional district.

[6] In the postwar period, many blacks had migrated from rural to urban areas to establish communities independent of white supervision.

The Republican executive committee refused to accept his account and pulled him from the congressional race, calling for a second convention less than three weeks before the election.

At the next convention, O'Hara nearly earned his nomination back, but the Democrats accused him of not being a United States citizen.

O'Hara stated that he had taken preliminary steps to become naturalized, but had never completed the process as he learned he was born in New York City.

[7]) While the Republicans opted to nominate James H. Harris (a white candidate), O'Hara remained in the race and won the election.

Congress allowed a loophole permitting segregated seating, although the railroads' interstate transportation was under federal oversight and should have been enforced constitutional rights.

That year, O'Hara succeeded in amending the appropriations bill for the District of Columbia (which was then administered by the US Congress), in order to require that male and female teachers doing the same work and having the same certificates be paid equivalent salaries.

In 1900 the Democrat-dominated state legislature passed a constitutional suffrage amendment that effectively disfranchised blacks through making voter registration more difficult.