Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to free parents in 1827. He trained as a carpenter until 1848, when he was one of two Black students accepted to Dartmouth College. After his Dartmouth days, Gibbs went to seminary at Princeton before being ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1852.

Gibbs was no stranger to activism. He spoke out for abolition, universal suffrage, and against segregation in street cars. He helped the Underground Railroad and served as president of the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League. When the Civil War broke out, Gibbs joined the Union army.

After the war, Gibbs went to Florida to organize churches among the newly freed. There, he began an impressive political career, first as the Secretary of State for Florida in 1868, and then the Superintendent of Public Education. Some believe Gibbs died of a heart attack in 1874, while others maintain that he was poisoned by his political enemies.