“Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs became the first African American Secretary of State for Florida on this date in 1868. Gibbs was one of eighteen African American delegates to the 1868 Florida Constitutional Convention. Gibbs was originally from Philadelphia and was only the third black man to graduate from Dartmouth College. He moved south after the Civil War to help the reconstruction effort and eventually came to Florida in 1867. After serving as the Secretary of State until 1873, Gibbs became the Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1873. Jonathan C. Gibbs died in Tallahassee on August 14, 1874.”
~Florida Historical Society