Jonathan C. GibbsEducator (1827-1874) Jonathan C. Gibbs was the first black person named to a Cabinet post in Florida. Gibbs, for whom Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg was named, was secretary of state from Nov. 6, 1868, to Jan. 17, 1873. A week after leaving that post, he was named state superintendent of public instruction, a post he held until his death. Gibbs, son of a Methodist minister, was born in Philadelphia in 1827. He became a carpenter and later a Presbyterian minister. Gibbs went to Florida after receiving a master's degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. He gained Gov. Harrison Reed's attention during the 1868 state constitutional convention, which prompted the governor to name him secretary of state. When Reed twice faced impeachment, Gibbs served as acting governor. Even his critics considered him one of the most capable public servants in Florida, white or black. Perhaps his greatest work came when he headed the state's education system. When he assumed the post, some 71,000 of the state's 200,000 citizens were deemed illiterate. But he reformed the system and made education a priority. Under his tenure, state school enrollment tripled. Information for these profiles was compiled from The Dictionary of Black Culture by Wade Baskin and Richard N. Runes, 1973, Philosophical Library, New York; The Negro Almanac, A Reference Work on the African American, compiled and edited by Harry A. Ploski and James Williams, 1989, Gale Research Inc., Detroit; and the St. Petersburg Times and Evening Independent library files.