William Woods Holden was a white attorney, newspaper editor and publisher, and politician born in Orange County, North Carolina, near Hillsborough, in 1818. Preferring journalism to law, Holden apprenticed with Dennis Heartt of the Hillsborough Recorder and later purchased the North Carolina Standard, through which he advocated various causes and became a popular figure in North Carolina. This popularity translated to a career in politics and public service.
Holden exhibited flip-flopping views on secession and the expansion of slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War before ultimately voting in favor of secession in 1861. During the war, he resisted the Confederacy and worked in favor of peace and reunification. Following the war, President Andrew Johnson appointed Holden as the provisional governor of North Carolina, a position Holden held from May to December of 1865. Holden was later elected as governor of North Carolina as a member of the newly formed Republican Party, serving in that office from 1868 to 1870.
As governor, Holden faced a number of challenges related to Reconstruction and the reorganization of North Carolina after the Civil War. He advocated for the equal rights of formerly enslaved people and opposed the Ku Klux Klan, in particular Klan-instigated violence and terror that was occurring in Alamance and Caswell counties. This combination of Holden’s opposition to the Klan, violence wrought by the Klan against Black and white community members, and resulting political conflict led to Holden’s eventual impeachment and removal as governor in 1871. He became the first U.S. governor to be convicted and removed from office, and he was barred from holding state office again. Years later, in 2011, Holden was posthumously and unanimously pardoned by the North Carolina State Senate.