Francis Lewis Cardozo

Life & Legacy

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.