MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2009 Regular Session
To: Rules
By: Representatives Banks, Brown, Buck (72nd), Calhoun, Clarke, Coleman (65th), Evans (70th), Robinson, Wooten
A RESOLUTION CONGRATULATING THE FAMILY OF SUPERINTENDENT THOMAS W. CARDOZO, ON THE DEDICATION OF A MIDDLE SCHOOL NAMED IN HIS HONOR BY THE JACKSON PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
WHEREAS, on January 16, 2009, the Jackson Public Schools will honor the legacy of former Superintendent of Education Thomas W. Cardozo, for his efforts in empowering African-American citizens, bringing local control to the public school system, and supporting the education of both the White and African-American children, in a dedication ceremony naming three new schools for three Mississippi Civil Rights pioneers; and
WHEREAS, Thomas W. Cardozo was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1838, the son of Lydia Williams, a freeborn Black woman and a Jewish journalist, Jacob Cardozo, of the Cardozo family that descended from Sephardic Jews and rose to great prominence in American business and politics, as demonstrated by the fact that Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo was a distant relative of Jacob Cardozo; and
WHEREAS, Thomas W. Cardozo had two siblings, an older brother, Francis, who went on to become Secretary of State and State Treasurer of South Carolina in the Reconstruction era, and a sister, whose married name was Mrs. C. L. McKinney; and
WHEREAS, as a member of the Black and Tan Revolution, Thomas W. Cardozo was appointed to the Circuit Clerk’s office in Warren County in 1871, and in 1872, Cardozo successfully conducted a statewide campaign to be elected as the Mississippi delegate to the first Congressional Civil Rights Commission; and
WHEREAS, by 1873, Cardozo organized a secret band of "brothers" that included Deputy Sheriff Peter Crosby, State Representative I. D. Shadd, and Warren County Constable William T. Montgomery, that encouraged other prominent members of the Black community to gain political control of the counties with Black majority populations and use the power to bargain for half of the top state offices in the elections of 1873; and
WHEREAS, Superintendent Cardozo's most significant accomplishment was being elected State Superintendent of Education, the first African American to hold that office; and
WHEREAS, in 1874, Mississippi's education system was underfunded and behind in many aspects, so Cardozo worked to secure the funding for the school system, and advocated providing free uniform statewide textbooks and eliminating racial segregation from the schools; and
WHEREAS, this brave act of being elected to a statewide office and supporting the education of all children of Mississippi will not be forgotten by our citizens who have been educated by the system that Cardozo built:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby congratulate the family of Superintendent Cardozo, on the dedication of a middle school named in his honor by the Jackson Public Schools.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to his family, the Jackson Public Schools to be placed in the educational facility named in his honor and to the members of the Capitol Press Corps.