1821day.year
Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs
(1821 - 1874)
American minister and politician
American minister and politician
African American minister and Reconstruction-era politician who served as Florida's Secretary of State.
Born in 1821 in Philadelphia, Gibbs was ordained as a Methodist minister and became active in education.
He moved to Florida during Reconstruction, advocating for public schools and civil rights for freedmen.
In 1868, he was elected Florida's Secretary of State, becoming one of the first African Americans to hold statewide office.
Gibbs later served as Superintendent of Public Instruction, shaping the state's early public education system.
His leadership laid important groundwork for civil and political participation of African Americans in the post–Civil War South.
1821
Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs