Thomas Warren Long Explained

Thomas Warren Long (January 10, 1839 – October 25, 1917) was an African Methodist Episcopal minister and politician in Florida. He fought against the Confederacy during the American Civil War and later served in the state legislature.

Born into slavery on a plantation in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1832,^[1] Long eventually escaped and fought with the Union Army during the American Civil War.^[2] Thomas Wentworth Higginson was one of his commanding officers.^[3]

Long served as Madison County's superintendent of public schools in 1868 and 1869. He represented the Marion County, Florida in the Florida Senate from 1873 until 1879.^[3] He helped organize churches for former slaves in Florida. He proposed a legislation for free public schools in Florida.^[4]

Florida's state archives have a halftone reproduction, presumably from a newspaper, of a photograph of him.^[5]

See also

• African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction era

Notes and References

1. Web site: Gail . Hollenbeck. Allen Temple AME Church in Brooksville celebrates its 142nd birthday. Tampa Bay Times . July 7, 2012.
2. Book: Rivers, Larry Eugene. Rebels and Runaways: Slave Resistance in Nineteenth-Century Florida. July 15, 2012. University of Illinois Press. 9780252094033. Google Books.
3. Book: Brown, Canter. Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867–1924. June 30, 1998. University of Alabama Press. Google Books. 105–106. 9780817309152.
4. Web site: Ocala Black History Mural. 2022-01-12. City of Ocala Recreation and Parks.
5. "Reverend Thomas Warren Long", Florida Memory.