Hibbs, Thomas J., 1919-1996.

Thomas J. Hibbs, Jr. was born October 7th, 1919 in Alexandria, Minnesota. Hibbs and his father, Thomas Hibbs, Sr. and his mother, Florence Davis Hibbs, were one of only two black families in Alexandria at that time. Thomas Sr. made his living as a caretaker for a Catholic church building and ran a shoe shine parlor. The family moved to St. Cloud in the 1920s, when Thomas Sr. was asked to take over the care of some church buildings there. Thomas Jr. attended grade school in Alexandria and at St. Mary's School in St. Cloud. After his father passed away in 1935, Hibbs's mother enrolled him in St. John's preparatory school. After an unsuccessful year at another preparatory school in Alabama, Hibbs spent his senior year at the new high school at Father Flanagan's Boys' Home in Boys Town, Nebraska.

After completing military service in Virginia, he attended Globe College of Business and the University of Minnesota's General College. He went on to a career in the dry cleaning business.

Hibbs worked with many different service, religious, and social organizations, but greatest passion was work with youth. Beginning as a youth, he was particularly involved with scouting and eventually become an Eagle Scout. During his military service in Virginia during the 1940s he volunteered as a Boy Scout organizer, serving as a district commissioner for the Robert E. Lee Council. Also worked with the Boys' Club of Minneapolis and as an advisor for Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity he initially joined as a student at the University of Minnesota.

Florence Hibbs Daniels (n�e Davis) was born November 19th,1896 in Montreal, Canada, the daughter of Jennie Turner Davis of Montreal and Robert Washington Davis of Virginia. Her family was one of the first black families to settle in Minneapolis, where they moved in the late 1890s. She married Thomas Hibbs in 1916 and the couple soon moved from Minneapolis to Alexandria, Minnesota. Their son, Thomas J. Hibbs, Jr., was born in Alexandria in October, 1917.

The family moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota in the mid-1920s. In 1935, Thomas Sr. died. Florence put her son in a boarding school and moved to Chicago, where she pursued work with the African Methodist Episcopal church, eventually becoming a minister. During the 1930s and 1940s, she toured with the Mason Jubilee Singers and was famed for her skill as a whistler. Most of her work in Chicago was with the Coppin A.M.E. Church, located on Michigan Avenue, where she served for nine years as Director of the Coppin Community Center. Other leadership positions included president of the A.M.E. Conference Workers and service on the executive board of the United Council of Churches (Women's divison) and the executive board of the A.M.E. Missionary Conference.

In 1952 Florence married longtime family friend Benjamin Daniels and the couple moved back to Minneapolis. Florence continued her work for the church, becoming the director of girls' work at Welcome Hall, a branch of the Union Gospel Mission located in St. Paul.

From the guide to the Thomas J. Hibbs and family papers., 1921-1996., (Minnesota Historical Society)