On April 17, 1823, in a free Black community in Philadelphia, Mifflin Wistar Gibbs was born into a nation where Black Americans could vote in few places, hold little political power and knew better than to expect the law to treat them equally.
By the time of his death in 1915, Gibbs had become a merchant, newspaper publisher, lawyer, judge and diplomat and also went on to become the first Black person elected to public office in British Columbia and the first Black judge elected in the United States.
The son of a Methodist minister, Gibbs came of age in Philadelphia’s abolitionist circles and worked with Frederick Douglass. But like many Black Northerners in the mid-19th century, he looked west for greater opportunity. In 1850, he arrived in San Francisco, one of thousands drawn by the Gold Rush.
California promised prosperity, but not equality and Black residents were barred from voting, prohibited from serving on juries and forbidden to testify against white people in court. Gibbs, trained as a carpenter, struggled to find work because of his race and instead opened a shoe business, becoming, before long, one of the city’s most well-known Black businessmen.
He also became one of its most outspoken critics of discrimination and in the early 1850s, helped organize statewide conventions of Black Californians and co-founded the Mirror of the Times, the first Black newspaper in California. Through speeches, petitions and editorials, he challenged laws that denied Black residents the rights promised to others.
Then, in 1858, California lawmakers passed new restrictions intended to drive Black settlers from the state. Gibbs responded by helping lead hundreds of African Americans north to Victoria.
In Canada, Gibbs again built a business and entered public life and in 1867, he won a seat on the Victoria City Council, becoming the first Black person elected to office in British Columbia. Later, after returning to Little Rock, he studied law and entered politics during Reconstruction. In 1873, voters elected him city judge.
In 1897, President William McKinley named Gibbs the American consul to Madagascar.
Mifflin Wistar Gibbs died on July 11, 1915, in Little Rock. He was 92. He was buried at Oakland-Fraternal Cemetery.
