Published on February 23, 2026 at 10:28 pm
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BLACKSONVILLE 100 | Black Jaxsons who carved pathways, through their service or sacrifice, that opened professional opportunities for others.
Nat Glover
Law enforcement, higher education | Nat Glover served as the first Black sheriff of Duval County. His 1995 victory made him Florida’s first elected Black sheriff in 107 years. Glover is a Jacksonville native and Edward Waters University graduate who played on the school’s 1964 Southeastern Athletic Conference championship football team. Glover also served as president of Edward Waters from 2011 to 2018.
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(Photo: Will Brown, Jacksonville Today)
Alvin Brown
Politics | Alvin Brown was the first Black person elected mayor of Jacksonville in 2011. He attended Edward Waters University and then graduated from Jacksonville University with an undergraduate degree and MBA. Brown also served on the National Transportation Safety Board during the Biden Administration.
(Photo courtesy: National Transportation Safety Board)
Jerenia Valentine Dial Reid (1879-1962)
Nurse | Jerenia Valentine Dial Reid was Florida’s first Black registered nurse, in the early 20th century. She was born in Jacksonville and trained at the Freedman’s Hospital School in Washington, D.C., before returning home in the 1890s. She served as the recording secretary for the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses throughout the 1920s.
Henry J. Bradley
Firefighter | Henry J. Bradley was the first local firefighter to lose his life in the line of service. Bradley and others from the voluntary Duval Fire Company had responded to a fire on Dec. 6, 1885, when a building collapsed on him.
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(Photo: City of Jacksonville)
Susie King Taylor
Nurse | Susie King Taylor, a Georgia native, was born enslaved before serving for the Union in the American Civil War as a nurse who accompanied the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops during their campaigns in Jacksonville in March 1863 and February 1864. The troops were ambushed by Confederates in blackface during their 1863 campaign. She rarely returned to the South after the end of the Civil War.
(Photo courtesy: Library of Congress)
Dr. Charles McIntosh
Doctor | Dr. Charles McIntosh was Jacksonville’s first Black pediatrician to open a private practice, in 1958. He started the Sickle Cell Disease Association of Northeast Florida in 1969 with the goal of informing the community about the sickle cell trait, which predominantly affects African Americans, and he was a founding member of Volunteers in Medicine Jacksonville. He is a graduate of the Florida A&M College for Negroes and Meharry Medical College.
(Photo by Will Brown, Jacksonville Today)
Dr. Alexander H. Darnes
Doctor | Dr. Alexander H. Darnes was Jacksonville’s first Black medical doctor. He helped the city overcome its Yellow Fever epidemic of 1888. Enslaved by Edmund Kirby Smith’s family in St. Augustine prior to the American Civil War, Darnes accompanied Smith during the war. He graduated from Howard University and arrived in Jacksonville in 1880. He practiced medicine until his death in 1894.
(Photo courtesy: St. Augustine Historical Society)
Ken Knight
Broadcaster | Ken Knight became first Black broadcaster to individually host a television show in Jacksonville when he hosted The Ken Knight Show on WJXT in December 1961. Earlier in his career, he became the first Black radio announcer in the South at Atlanta’s WROD. Knight is an Alabama native who graduated from Campbell Street High School in Daytona Beach.
(Photo courtesy: Jacksonville Public Library Black History Month Calendar)
Ben Frazier
Broadcaster, activist | Ben Frazier, a proud graduate of William M. Raines High School, was one of Jacksonville’s first Black television news anchors, taking a chair at News4Jax/WJXT in the 1970s. Later in life, Frazier founded the Northside Coalition, a social justice organization, in 2015. He spoke before the United Nations Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination in 2022 and advocated before state and local officials up until his death in 2023.
(Photo: Will Brown, Jacksonville Today)
Alphonso Simmons
Pilot | Alphonso Simmons was a Tuskegee Airman who was killed in action on March 3, 1945, at age 25. According to the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency, Simmons was one of eight siblings who moved to Jacksonville as a young child, and he attended Stanton High School. He enrolled in the Tuskegee Institute Air Pilot Program and was awarded his wings on Oct 15, 1943. For his service and sacrifice, Simmons was awarded an Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters and a Purple Heart. He is buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial.
(Photo courtesy: U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base and CAF Rise Above)
Major L. Anderson II (1925-2021)
Aircraft mechanic, Tuskegee Airman | Born in Jacksonville in March 1925, Major Anderson was drafted by the Army Air Corps in 1943 and served as a Tuskegee Airman. He repaired aircraft and prepared B-25 bombers for return to action during his 30 months in the Air Corps. After his World War II service, Anderson attended Howard University and Federal City College. He later devoted more than 30 years to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
(Photo courtesy: U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base and CAF Rise Above)
William Surcey
Aircraft mechanic, Tuskegee Airman | A charter member of the 99th Fighter Squadron, Jacksonville native William Surcey served as a Tuskegee Airman and mechanic who repaired and inspected aircraft during World War II. According to a 2009 interview with Clarence Von Bostick, Surcey joined the ROTC as a sophomore, before the U.S. was attacked in 1941. He earned a Bronze Star for distinguished service. A Stanton High alum, he later graduated from Tuskegee University. He died in March 2011 at age 92.
Charles Scriven
Law enforcement | Durkeeville native Charles Scriven was hired by the Jacksonville Police Department in 1955. While an officer, he earned his degree from Edward Waters College in 1962. In 1973, Scriven became the first Black chief appointed to lead at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
(Photo courtesy: Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office)
Winona Cargile Alexander
Social worker, volunteer | One of the founders of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. at Howard University in 1913, Winona Cargile Alexander helped create what is now known as the Jacksonville Alumnae Chapter of the organization in 1946. She also served as the first Black social worker who was employed by the Duval County Welfare Board.
(Photo courtesy: Jacksonville Alumnae Chapter Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.)
Norma Solomon White
Educator, volunteer | Norma Solomon White was a Jacksonville native and Stanton High School graduate who became the first woman to join the Florida A&M Marching 100 band. She says William P. Foster visited her home to personally recruit her to the band. She later earned a master’s degree in music education from Columbia and a doctorate. Solomon White served more than three decades as a Duval County music educator and was the international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. between 1998 and 2002. During her leadership, Alpha Kappa Alpha chapters helped 15,000 elementary students prepare for middle school and built 10 schools in South Africa.
(Photo: Will Brown, Jacksonville Today)
This entry is part of Jacksonville Today‘s BLACKSONVILLE 100, a list of influential people with ties to Jacksonville, compiled on the centennial of Negro History Week. See the whole list.
