Henry P. Jacobs (July 8, 1825 - December 14, 1899) was a janitor, preacher, founder of schools, and state legislator in Mississippi. He escaped slavery.[1]
He was born in Alabama. He escaped slavery to Canada and then moved to Michigan before settling in Natchez, Mississippi after the American Civil War.[2]
He founded the school that became Jackson State University.[3] In 2010, Jackson State University president Ronald Mason Jr. proposed merging several Historically Black Colleges and Universities into specialized campuses of a newly formed university called Jacobs State University in honor of Jacobs.[4]
He served with John R. Lynch and O. C. French in the Mississippi House of Representatives from Adams County, Mississippi.
In 2015 a mural was painted in Ypsilanti in his honor.[5]