Richard Erwin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard C. Erwin (died 2006) was an American jurist and politician who was the first African American to be elected to statewide office in North Carolina.
Erwin served on his local school board in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (1961-68), on the North Carolina State Board of Education (1971-77), and was elected to two terms in the North Carolina General Assembly as a Democrat. In 1977, Governor Jim Hunt appointed him to the North Carolina Court of Appeals. In 1978, the voters of the state elected him to continue as an Appeals Court judge.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed Erwin as the first black federal judge in North Carolina. Erwin later became chief judge of the U.S. District Court in North Carolina's Middle District.
