Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar

Mifflin Wistar Gibbs (April 17, 1823 – July 11, 1915) was an American-born politician, businessman, newspaper publisher, and advocate for black rights in both the United States and Canada. He moved to California as a young man, during the Gold Rush, and was an early black pioneer in San Francisco. Gibbs co-founded the first black newspaper in California and was an active leader in the early California State Convention of Colored Citizens. Angered by discriminatory laws passed in California in 1858, he led a migration of African Americans that year to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, and he worked in Victoria for ten years. Gibbs became the first black person elected to public office in British Columbia on November 16, 1866, upon winning a seat on the Victoria City Council. After the American Civil War, Gibbs and many of the other black settlers returned to the United States. In the late 1860s, he settled in Arkansas's capital city of Little Rock, and he became an attorney. He was active in Reconstruction politics. In 1873, Gibbs became the first black judge elected in the United States. In 1897, during the William McKinley administration, he was appointed as American consul to Madagascar.