Francis Lewis Cardozo
Francis Lewis Cardozo was a clergyman, politician, and educator. He was the first African American to hold a statewide office in the United States. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina and died in Washington, D.C.
Francis Cardozo was born in Charleston as the son of Lydia Weston, a free woman of color, and Isaac Cardozo, a Sephardic Jewish man who worked at the federal customhouse. They had a commonlaw marriage, as state law prevented their marrying. Francis had a brother Thomas. His father encouraged the boys to attend schools for free blacks, the only ones in the city that would admit them. As a young man, Cardozo worked as a carpenter and a shipbuilder.
Source: Wikipedia