Biography: Cardozo, Francis Lewis

Francis Lewis Cardozo

Biography: Cardozo, Francis Lewis

2016

Biography

The South Carolina Encyclopedia features a 2016 biography on the life of African American educator and South Carolina politician, Francis Lewis Cardozo. According to the article, Cardozo was born free in 1836 to a Jewish father and free Black mother in Charleston, South Carolina. He was educated, became a carpenter, shipbuilder and attended university in Great Britain. He returned to the U.S. in 1864, became a pastor and education administrator at Avery Normal Institute, a school for Black students, in Charleston, South Carolina via the American Missionary Association (1865). Cardozo was elected the Secretary of State of South Carolina in 1868, making him the first African American in the United States elected to statewide office. The article goes on to highlight his successes and challenges (i.e. prosecution) during the Reconstruction Era.

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South Carolina Encyclopedia (University of South Carolina)

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