272 pages / 6.00 x 9.00 inches / 9 halftones
History / United States - Civil War Period | History / United States - Southern History | History / African American
A Brief Moment in the Sun is the first scholarly biography of Francis Lewis Cardozo, one of the most talented and influential African Americans to hold elected office in the South between Reconstruction and the civil rights era. Born to a formerly enslaved African American mother and white Jewish father in antebellum South Carolina, Cardozo led a life of extraordinary achievement as a pioneering educator, politician, and government official. However, today he is largely unknown in South Carolina and among students of nineteenth-century American history.
Immediately after the Civil War, Cardozo succeeded in creating and leading a successful school for formerly enslaved children in the face of widespread racial hostility. Between 1868 and 1877, voters elected him secretary of state and state treasurer. In the Republican administrations that controlled the state during Reconstruction, Cardozo was a famously honest officeholder when many of his colleagues were notoriously corrupt. He played a major part in securing a viable educational system for Black and white children and land reform for thousands of landless families. Cardozo proved that Black men could govern at least as well as white. As a result, he became the target of white supremacist Democratic politicians after they reclaimed power through a campaign of violence and intimidation. They prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned Cardozo on a fabricated fraud charge. Pardoned in 1879, Cardozo moved to Washington DC, where he led an even more successful school for African American children.
Neil Kinghan’s Brief Moment in the Sun is the first complete historical analysis of Francis Cardozo and his contribution to Reconstruction and African American history. It draws on original research on Cardozo’s early life and education in Scotland and England and pulls together for the first time the extant sources on his experiences in South Carolina and Washington, DC. Kinghan reveals all that Cardozo achieved as a Black educator and political leader and explores what else he might have realized if white racism and violence had not ended his efforts in South Carolina. Above all, Kinghan shows that Francis Cardozo deserves a place of honor and distinction in the history of nineteenth-century America.
Neil Kinghan holds a doctorate in history from University College London. He is a former director general for local and regional government in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of England and a former director general of the U.K.’s Equality and Human Rights Commission.
“A biracial Charlestonian with a once-enslaved mother, Francis Cardozo distinguished himself in South Carolina’s government through his high ethics and devotion to duty. He single-handedly belied the false ‘tragic era’ narrative that white Redeemers first foisted on the public and then on historians. Neil Kinghan restores Cardozo to the prominence he deserves and gives readers a deeply satisfying portrayal of his life and times.”—Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, author of Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896–1920
“A Brief Moment in the Sun explains why Francis Cardozo’s life and career mattered so much. His struggles and achievements, and the injustices he faced, are searing reminders of both what was achieved during Reconstruction and how it was overthrown.”—Adam I. P. Smith, author of The Stormy Present: Conservatism and the Problem of Slavery in Northern Politics, 1846–1865
“Determined to correct the historical neglect of Francis Cardozo, Neil Kinghan delivers a powerful tribute to this vital player in the Reconstruction era.”—Orville Vernon Burton, coauthor of Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court
“Kinghan has crafted a masterful biography of one of Reconstruction’s foremost leaders and restored Francis Cardozo to his rightful and meaningful place in the history of Reconstruction America.”—William C. Hine, author of South Carolina State University: A Black Land-Grant College in Jim Crow America
“A Brief Moment in the Sun is long, long overdue. From 1865 until 1878, Francis Cardozo was the most important and influential Black leader in South Carolina.”—W. Lewis Burke, author of All for Civil Rights: African American Lawyers in South Carolina, 1868–1968
“Born to a formerly enslaved woman of color and a Jewish father, Francis Cardozo became one of South Carolina’s most famous—and famously honest—Republicans of the Reconstruction era. A Brief Moment in the Sun is crucial to our understanding of a period when the stakes could not have been higher.”—Dale Rosengarten, founding director of the Jewish Heritage Collection at the College of Charleston Library
Found an Error? Tell us about it.
