Francis Lewis Cardozo

Francis Lewis Cardozo (February 1, 1836 – July 22, 1903) was an American clergyman, politician, and educator. When elected in South Carolina as Secretary of State in 1868, he was the first African American to hold a statewide office in the United States.

Born free during the time of slavery in Charleston, South Carolina to a mother who was a free woman of color, and a Sephardic Jewish father, Francis Cardozo studied at University of Glasgow and later at seminary. He served as a minister in New Haven, Connecticut, before returning to South Carolina in 1865 with the American Missionary Association to establish schools for freedmen after the American Civil War.

After working in South Carolina during Reconstruction, Cardozo received an appointment in 1878 at the U.S. Department of Treasury in Washington, D.C. Later he served twelve years as principal of a major public high school, was an advocate for school integration and lived in the nation's capital for the rest of his life.

Early life Francis Cardozo was born free in 1836 in Charleston as the second of four sons of Lydia Williams Weston, a free woman of color, and Isaac Nunez Cardozo, a Sephardic Jewish man of Portuguese descent who had a position at the US Customhouse in the port city. The children were born free because their mother was free. His parents had a common-law marriage, as state law prevented interracial marriage. Francis had two sisters, Lydia and Eslander, an older brother, Henry Weston Cardozo, and two younger brothers, Jacob Edward Cardozo (later Moseman), and Thomas Whitmarsh Cardozo.

After returning to the United States in 1864, Francis Cardozo became pastor of the Temple Street Congregational Church in New Haven, Connecticut. On December 20, 1864, he married Catherine Romena ( Minnie) Howell, a stepdaughter of the Rev. Amos Beman, noted abolitionist and former pastor of the same Temple Street Church. Francis and Minnie had seven children through their marriage; two died young, leaving four sons and a daughter. He was reelected in 1874 and 1876, although the latter election was one in which Democrats swept most offices and took over control of the state legislature and governor's seat.

South Carolina elections, as in other southern states, had been increasingly marked by violence as Democrats sought to suppress the black Republican vote. The 1876 gubernatorial election season was also violent and featured widespread fraud at the polls and disputes over counts. In the end, white Democrats regained control of the state government after a compromise at the national level in 1877 led to the federal government abandoning Reconstruction. This included the removal of remaining federal troops from the South that year and other steps, including supporting Democrat Wade Hampton III's claim for the governorship in a disputed election. As customary in a change of administrations, Hampton demanded the resignation of Cardozo and other members of the earlier government; Francis left office on May 1, 1877. Despite questionable evidence, he was found guilty and served over six months in jail. After the federal government dropped election fraud charges against some Democrats, Cardozo was pardoned in 1879 by Democratic Governor William Dunlap Simpson.

In 1878 Cardozo was appointed to a Washington, D.C., position in the Treasury Department under Secretary John Sherman. He served in that position for six years, during which time he worked on education policy for the city of Washington. It was administered by the federal government He introduced a business curriculum and made it a leading school for African Americans. He served as principal until 1896.

Cardozo was a distant relative of future United States Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, who was born in New York of another branch of the family. Francis's granddaughter, Eslanda Cardozo Goode, studied chemistry in college and was an anthropologist, author, actor and civil rights activist. She married renowned singer and political activist Paul Robeson.

Legacy and honors In 1928, the Department of Business Practice was reorganized as a high school in Northwest Washington, D.C. It was named Cardozo Senior High School in Francis Cardozo's honor.

In popular culture In the 1994 historical drama North and South, Book III, Francis Cardozo was portrayed by actor Billy Dee Williams.