Individual Profiles of Politically Active African Americans in Charlottesville

Charles E. Coles George P. Inge John G. Shelton James T.S. Taylor

Charles E. Coles

was an active member of the
Republican Party. He was one of the two African-American delegates who formed part of the Cox delegation, which was dismissed from the Luray Convention in 1922. In the 1920's Coles and his sons owned the largest black construction company in Charlottesville.

George P. Inge

was born in Pittsylvania County, Virgina, in 1860. He was a teacher in Albemarle County for two years before opening a grocery store at 333 West Main Street. In 1900, he was elected City Chairman of the Charlottesville
Republican Party. He was part of the Cox delegation dismissed from the Luray Convention in 1922. He was quoted to have said that he aimed "to live an upright life and do all I can to better the condition of my fellow man who may not be so well favored."

John G. Shelton

was an active member of the Republican Party and served as an alternate for the Cox delegation that was dismissed from the
Luray Convention in 1922. He was a public school teacher and the editor of Charlottesville's Messenger, an African-American, weekly newspaper.

James T.S. Taylor

was born in 1840 and died in 1918. Taylor enlisted in the Civil War and returned to Charlottesville with one thousand dollars cash, paving the way for property ownership. He was elected to the 1867 Virginia Constitutional Convention and was the only African-American elected representative from the Charlottesville area during Reconstruction.


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