M. W. Gibbs who was Municipal Judge in Little
Rock, and J. C. Corbin, who was State Superintendent of Schools in Arkansas, had creditable
records.[1] John R. Lynch, when speaker of Mississippi House of Representatives, was given a
public testimonial by Republicans and Democrats
and the leading Democratic paper said: “His bearing in office had been so proper and his rulings in
such marked contrast to the partisan conduct of
the ignoble whites of his party who have aspired
to be leaders of the blacks, that the conservatives
cheerfully joined in the testimonial.”[2]
Of the colored treasurer of South Carolina, Governor Chamberlain said: “I have never heard one word or seen one act of Mr. Cardoza’s which did not confirm my confidence in his personal integrity and his political honor and zeal for the honest administration of the State Government. On every occasion and under all circumstances he has been against fraud and jobbery and in favor of good measures and good men.”[3]
Jonathan C. Gibbs, a colored man and the first State Superintendent of Instructions in Florida, was a graduate of Dartmouth. He established the system and brought it to success, dying in har-