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Thomas W. Cardozo 1838-1881. Cardozo was born in Charleston, SC, to a freeborn African American and a Jewish journalist. After he was married, he moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he became involved in building up the education, economics, and political power of African Americans in Mississippi. He was the first African American to serve as superintendent of education for the state of Mississippi. As state superintendent, he was interested in the education of all children even though the public schools were segregated. The statewide adoption of uniform textbooks was a reform that he supported. After serving as state superintendent, he moved to Massachusetts, where he died in 1881.