Thomas McCants Stewart

Who was Thomas McCants Stewart?

Thomas McCants Stewart was an African American clergyman, lawyer and civil rights leader.

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, he became one of the first black students to enroll in the University of South Carolina at Columbia in 1874. He graduated with B.A. and LL.B. degrees, and joined the law firm of South Carolina Congressman Robert B. Elliott. A close friend of Booker T. Washington, Stewart followed his philosophies of self-reliance. He moved to New York in 1880, and eventually to Liberia in 1883, to serve as a professor at Liberia College. After two years, he returned to the United States, lived in New York and later Hawaii, before moving to London in 1905. In 1911 he was appointed Associated Justice of the Liberian Supreme Court. His criticism of president Daniel Edward Howard, however, resulted in his removal from the court in 1914. Stewart returned to London, and in 1921 he settled on the Virgin Islands, where he established a legal practice with Christopher Payne. He died in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands in 1923.

His son, McCants Stewart, was the first black lawyer in Oregon.