Arthur W. St. Clair (died 1877) was an African-American community leader in

Brooksville, Florida Brooksville is a city in western Florida and the county seat of Hernando County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 7,719, up from 7,264 at the 2000 census. Brooksville is home to historic buildings and residence ...

, who was murdered in 1877 by a mob days after he presided over the marriage of a black man and a white woman in the area that is now Dade City, Florida. Controversy followed as efforts to investigate the white men accused of killing him were stymied. The courthouse was destroyed in a fire.Former Slave Is Sixth Great Brooksvillian
City honors the slain founder of a church and a school ''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

'' on Oct. 4, 2007 by LOGAN NEILL

Slave

St. Clair was a slave on the plantation owned by John and Marina Sanderson May (who owned much of the land around what later became the town).

Career

After the American Civil War, he was

Hernando County Hernando County is a county located on the west central coast of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 194,515. Its county seat is Brooksville, and its largest community is Spring Hill. Hernando County is incl ...

's first post-Civil War voter registrar (1867–1868).Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867-1924
by Canter Brown He submitted an affidavit to Congress alleging instances of ineligible voting during the November 1876 election for State Legislature. St. Clair was a Baptist minister and founded Bethlehem Progressive Baptist Church. He also founded Hernando County's first school for blacks with his brother Hampton Sinclair. He was appointed by Florida's governor to lead the state's Third Brigade militia. He was a Hernando

County Commission A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States; such commissions usually comprise ...

er from 1875 until 1877.Like water covered the sea
the African American freedom struggle in Florida, 1877-1920] Paul Ortiz, Duke University. Dept. of History Duke University, 2000 1194 pages page 99, 100 St. Clair was a candidate for office in the Florida State Legislature, state legislature three times as a Republican and would have been a fourth time but was murdered two months before the election.

Death

St. Clair was murdered in 1877. The killing took place after he presided over the marriage of Dave James and Lizzie Day, an interracial marriage ( miscegenation). He was on his way back to Brooksville from the area that is now Dade City, Florida. The county courthouse was destroyed in a fire that destroyed records including those related to the case and was followed by other obstructions of efforts seeking justice in the case.

Recognition

The Brooksville City Council named him a Great Brooksvillian in 2007, the city's sixth person designated with the honor and its first African-American so honored.

Slave

Career

Death

Recognition

See also

References

Further reading