Thomas DeSaille Tucker
American lawyer
Thomas DeSaille Tucker or Thomas DeSaliere Tucker (July 21, 1844 – 1903) was an African-born lawyer, educator, and missionary. He was the first president of the State Normal College for Colored Students, which eventually became Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
Biography
Tucker was born in Victoria, a small village directly east of Shenge, in the Sherbro territory of British Sierra Leone currently Kagboro Chiefdom, Moyamba District, Sierra Leone. His mother was the daughter of Sherbro chief Harry Tucker, a member of the Sherbro Tucker family, while his father was said to be an Englishman or a French explorer. He attended the Mende Mission of the American Missionary Association, a school founded by American missionaries who accompanied the captives from the Amistad back to Africa.
Missionary George Thompson brought 12-year-old Tucker to the United States. Two years later, Tucker enrolled in the preparatory program at Oberlin College. He graduated with his A.B. in 1865. During his time at Oberlin, he took a leave in 1862 to teach at the AMA's school for emancipated slaves at Fortress Monroe. Following his graduation he taught at schools in Georgetown, Kentucky and New Orleans, Louisiana.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q16030880. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1844, 1903, 1865 and 1862.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas DeSaille Tucker” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.