William F. Thompson
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William F. Thompson (1852 — ?) was a lawyer, law school teacher, justice of the peace, tax assessor, state legislator, and delegate to Florida's 1885 Constitutional Convention.


Biography

Thompson was born October 15, 1852 in
Thomas County, Georgia Thomas County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census the population was 44,720. The county seat is Thomasville. Thomas County comprises the Thomasville, GA Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Thomas Count ...
and his only formal education was in
common school A common school was a public school in the United States during the 19th century. Horace Mann (1796–1859) was a strong advocate for public education and the common school. In 1837, the state of Massachusetts appointed Mann as the first secretary o ...
s. He was African American. He was married, had two children and was a member of the African Methodist Church. Thomson was appointed as Justice of the Peace from 1872 until 1873 and again in 1874. He represented
Leon County, Florida Leon County is a county in the Panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. It was named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. As of the 2020 census, the population was 292,198. The county seat is Tallahassee, which is also the state cap ...
in the
Florida House of Representatives The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...
in 1877 as a Republican. In 1884 he served as the city tax assessor for
Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In ...
and again in 1887. He was a delegate at the 1885 Florida Constitutional Convention also representing Leon County. At the convention he voted for the article for education to establish, maintain and manage
normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...
s funded by a poll tax with equal distribution for "white and colored children", even though it included segregation. He was a signatory on the final Constitution of 1885 signed August 3, 1885. His death is unknown but he was still alive in Tallahassee in 1891.


See also

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African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction era More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) after passage of the Reconstruction Acts in 1867 and 1868 as well as in the years after Reconstruction before white supremacy, disenfranchisement, ...


References

People from Thomas County, Georgia People from Leon County, Florida African-American Methodists {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, William F. 1852 births Year of death missing 19th-century American politicians African-American state legislators in Florida Republican Party members of the Florida House of Representatives Methodists from Florida American justices of the peace 19th-century African-American politicians