1978 - Jesse J. McCrary, Jr. was sworn in as Florida’s Secretary of State on this date, the first African American to occupy that post since Reconstruction. McCrary was born in Blitchton, Marion County in 1937 and graduated from Florida A&M with his Juris Doctor in 1965. He worked as Florida’s assistant Attorney General and in 1970 became the first black lawyer from a southern state to argue a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. From his time at FAMU to his final years living in Miami, McCrary was an advocate for civil rights in Florida.