Mickey Michaux

Henry M. Michaux Jr. was born on September 4, 1930 to Henry M. Michaux and Isadore M. Coates in Durham, North Carolina, United States.[5]

Representative Michaux and his wife June have two children, Jocelyn and Cicero. He and his wife currently reside in Durham, North Carolina.[6]

In 1948, Michaux attended Alice Freeman Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, North Carolina. He later went on to attend North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina, where he received both his Bachelor of Science in Biology in 1952 and his Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) in 1964. Representative Michaux also did some graduate work in physiology and biochemistry at Rutgers University in New Jersey and in Business Administration and Economics at North Carolina Central University. He holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws from North Carolina Central University as well.[7]

An attorney and businessman, Michaux is a native of Durham, North Carolina and an alumnus of Durham's North Carolina Central University.[8] He served in the United States Army Medical Corps from 1952–1954 and in the Army Reserves from 1954 until 1960. In the 1950s, Michaux became involved with the civil rights movement, and established a close friendship with Martin Luther King Jr.[9] After serving as an assistant district attorney, he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1972, having gone into politics at King's suggestion. In 1977, Michaux became the first black United States Attorney in the South since Reconstruction when he was appointed to head the office in the Middle District of North Carolina.[10] Following the confirmation of his appointment, Michaux resigned from the House of Representatives on July 18, 1977.[5] Leaving the attorney's office at the end of the Carter administration, Michaux ran for Congress in 1982. He returned to the state legislature in 1983.

He is currently still a practicing attorney and is partner at Michaux and Michaux Practicing Attorneys which was established in 1970.[7] Michaux is the current Vice President of Union Insurance and Realty Company and has held this position since 1955.[7]

Michaux polled the most votes in the first round of the 1982 Democratic primary for Congress, but because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, he was forced into a runoff with Tim Valentine. Valentine won the runoff, and Michaux returned to the state legislature. There, he pushed for the elimination of primary runoffs, and eventually the law was changed to lower the threshold to winning 40 percent to avoid a runoff. Had that law been in place and Michaux won the general election in 1982, he would have been the first African-American elected to Congress from North Carolina in the twentieth century.[11]

In 1992, Michaux lost the Democratic primary in the new 12th congressional district to Mel Watt.[12]

Representative Michaux was inducted into the Black College Alumni Hall of Fame in 2011.[7] His contributions have also been recognized by North Carolina Central University, which renamed its School of Education in his honor in 2007. Michaux has served three terms as the National President of the NCCU Alumni Association as well as terms as a member of the Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors of the NCCU Foundation, Inc.[13]

Michaux holds memberships in the National Bar Association, North Carolina Bar Association, and the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers.[7] While obtaining his undergraduate degree at North Carolina Central University, Michaux was a member of the Lampodas Club of Omega Psi Phi fraternity where he served as treasurer in 1949.[14]

• Cheney, John L. Jr. (1977). North Carolina Manual. Raleigh: North Carolina Secretary of State. OCLC 1245537.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

• Official state Senate page
• North Carolina General Assembly – Representative Henry M. Michaux Jr. official NC House website
• Raleigh News & Observer profile
• Oral History Interview with H. M. Michaux at Oral Histories of the American South
• Project Vote Smart - Representative Henry M. 'Mickey' Michaux Jr. (NC) profile
• Follow the Money - H M (Mickey) Michaux Jr
  • 2008 2006 2004 2002 2000 1998 1996 campaign contributions