"Jonathan C.Gibbs" ((1827-August 14, 1874)

Clergyman, educator, and politician, was born free in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania the son of Maria Jackson and Jonathan C.Gibbs, a Methodist minister.He learned carpentry as a youth and followed that trade until the Presbyterian Assembly helped him enroll at Darthmouth College in 1848. He was one of only two black students at Darthmouth,claimed that he had been rejected by eighteen colleges before being accepted.After graduating from Darthmouth in 1852 Jonathan attended the Princeton Theological Seminary.He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and went on to pastor churches in Troy,New York, and in Philadelphia.While in New York he campaigned for the extension of blacks suffrage in the state.When he moved to Philadelphia in 1859 he became prominent in the local Underground Railroad. During the Civil War he joined the freed people's relief efforts,campaigned against segregated streetcars,encouraged black enlistments in the army,served as vice president of the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League, and continued his participation in the black convention moment.He represented Philadelphia at the black national convention in Syracuse in 1864,which severely criticized the Republican Party for its failure to endorse black suffrage and which gave birth to the National Equal Rights League.In April 1865 Jonathan went to Wilmington,North Carolina,to establish churches and schools for freed people.He cooperated with white missionaries in the area but was deeply troubled by their paternalism and racism. Nevertheless,he saw the last few months of 1865 as period of remarkable gains for blacks. In 1866 Jonathan exclaimed,"We have progressed a century in a year."In 1867 he was transferred to Florida to organize churches and schools among former slaves.When the congressional Reconstruction Act of 1867 mandated black suffrage, he concluded that talented black men were as badly needed in politics as in religion and education. Voters elected him as a delegate to the Florida Constitutional Convention,which met in Tallahassee in January 1868.When Republican delegates divided into conservative and radical factions,he joined the latter but did not slavishly support them, and his speeches were generally temperate.Jonathan sought a constitution that would protect the rights of both blacks and property owners.He proved to be an exemplary delegate. Press accounts described him as being of medium build with "a good intelligent yellow African face," an orator,"not a roarer but a convincing, argumentative, pleasant speaker:in this respect the most talented man in the Convention." Many members agreed with the New York Tribune reporter who wrote that were was "no fitter man" at the convention,"white or black."In 1868 Jonathan was appointed secretary of state;working closely with the Florida governor Harrison Reed, he became a well respected public official. In the governor's absence he served as chairman pro tem with the support and confidence of other cabinet members.Even the Democrats occasionally praised Jonathan for the equitable manner in which he administered government contracts. His impartiality did not shield him from Ku Klux Klan hatred.His brother,during a visit to Tallahassee while Jonathan was secretary of state found him well-armed and sleeping in the attic, ready to defend himself against the Klan,which had threatened his life.Jonathan fought for civil rights and equal economic opportunity.Emphasizing black history at a time when it received little attention, in 1871 he wrote a series of sketches of distinguished blacks for Florida newspapers in an effort to"incite"black youth to"fit themselves for the higher walks of usefulness.""The future,he added,is "to the young man of color who is in earnest.Everything is before us;everything to win!"When Ossian B.Hart succeeded Harrison as governor in 1873, he appointed Jonathan superintendent of public instruction.Florida had no viable system of public education before Republican Reconstruction,and Johnathan played a large role in placing it on a firm foundation.The manuscript records of superintendent Johnathan reveal him to have been an intelligent,able administrator who was devoted to public education.County superintendents were charged with keeping complete,accurate records,and Johnathan closely supervised their work.He succeeded in securing the adoption of public education experience rapid growth under his brief leadership,he was not satisfied,claiming that white fear of integrated schools inhibited the system at the county level.The mental,moral,and physical possibilities of the black man,he said,"strikes terror to the hearts of men who have so long trampled him underfoot." He was not always so pessimistic.In address to the National Educational Association at Elmira,New York, in August 1873,he acknowledged Florida's educational shortcomings but offered impressive statistics to illustrate the great improvements that had taken place since the Civil War.His speech received flattering notice in New York journals, which seemed to relate with pride that an African-American from the south "had delivered with the dignity of an educated gentleman"a speech that in "breadth of thought and liberality of sentiment"marked him as "worthy son"of Darthmouth.His sudden death was a serious loss to the state.S.B.McLin,his successor as superintendent of public instruction,wrote that blacks "have lost one of their noblest representatives,our State one of its most valued citizens,and our public school system one of its most intelligent advocates good health,had given a rousing speech at a Republican meeting in Tallahassee died the later the same night.He probably suffered a heart attack, it was whispered and widely believered that he had been poisoned by white enemies.Jonathan was an outstanding African-American leader during the Reconstruction era.