Elected to six consecutive two-year terms, John H. Swearingen was South Carolina's ninth State Superintendent of Education from 1908 to 1922.

Swearingen's most significant achievements as state superintendent were:

• the passing of several legislative acts for the appropriation of much needed funds to South Carolina's public schools;
• the expansion of the minimum length of school terms;
• the introduction of stricter standards for teacher certification;
• the enactment of local school taxes;
• the implementation of the Federal Smith-Hughes Act, an act that allocated federal funding for vocational and agricultural schools; and
• the establishment of a mandatory statewide curriculum with books approved by the State Department of Education.

Blinded in a hunting accident at the age of thirteen, Swearingen strongly promoted initiatives to provide blind students, both black and white, with the same educational opportunities as others. He also managed to secure private funding for the development of night schools and other programs designed to improve education for blacks suffering from the ills of a segregated school system.

Swearingen attended the Georgia Academy for the Blind at Macon and the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind at Cedar Springs. He received his A.B. degree in 1899 from South Carolina College.

Swearingen died in September 1957.