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Attorney Armstrong Purdee (1856-1937), was the first professionally trained African American lawyer in Jackson County, Florida. According to the online resource Roots Web, "Armstrong Purdee was born into slavery on the Wardell Plantation in Jackson County, FL, March 16,

1856. His account of the Battle of Marianna was published in The Kalendar, the monthly publication of the Men's Club, St. Luke Episcopal Church, Marianna, FL, Vol. | No. 3. June 1.
1857. After slavery. Purdee, a protégé of Florida State Senator William H. Milton, became the first African American lawyer in Jackson County, a successful businessman, and an influential community leader. Froma the 1890s until the mid- 1920s. Purdee published the West Florida Bugle, a Black newspaper.*
      Source: Armstrong Purdee - Roots Web htps://sites.rootsweb.com/-gals/Actstrats.homl

Attorney Joseph Gibbs was a law professor and professor of political science at Florida A&M College. In the early 1950s, when the Florida A&M College of Law was first established, he served as the Librarian for the Law School. He would later serve as an associate professor of law. When the FAMU College of Law closed in 1986, Gibbs served as an associate professor of political science and public management. During the period of racial desegregation and school integration, Gibbs served on numerous legal committees and research teams such as the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), in efforts of devising and monitoring desegregation programs that were fair and equitable to all citizens, especially African Americans.

Gibbs was born in Caroline County, Maryland, and attended school in Chester, Pennsylvania. He attended Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland, where he studied education and economics. He served in the United States military during World War II and afterward enrolled at St. Johns University Law School, where he earned a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree in 1949. Gibbs also earned a master's degree from Temple University, where he majored in public administration and economics. He and his wife Cordelia lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina, before he began his teaching career at FAMCEE. Gibbs retired from FAMU in 1982 and lived in Clearwater, Florida, until his death in the mid-1990s.

The records in this collection consist of the professional papers of Attorney Joseph Gibbs. The records include correspondence, court cases, publications, reports and research logs. The documents reflect Gibbs' legal activities and work regarding school integration at the college level during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The main threat and growing trend at this time was to close historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and merge them with large white institutions. Numerous public and private HBCUs joined alliances in efforts to retain their sovereignty.

Biographical data and inclusive subjects were researched and compiled by Dr. Murell Dawson circa 2002.