Family of Firsts: Carl Jordan, first African American born on Sanibel Island

Christina Jordan has always known she was born into a family of firsts. Jordan’s family is a family of trailblazers on Sanibel Island.

It all started with her grandfather, Carl Jordan, the first African American born on the island in 1932.

“He was the first to be born on Sanibel,” said Jordan.

A glance at some of the pictures from the past shows that life on the island for Blacks wasn’t the same as everywhere else.

Jordan points to a photo of her Uncle Timmy, the first African American child baptized on Sanibel Island.

“You’re still talking about in the 50s where this is not really happening across America, never happening really in main Fort Myers where the pastor was a white pastor,” said Jordan. “So even with that being an African American family being baptized by a white pastor, there it’s showing like how progressive that Sanibel and the rest of those islanders were thinking back then.”

Another photo shows Jordan’s grandparents getting married on the island in the 50s.

Jordan says that even her grandparents’ marriage showed Sanibel’s progressive nature at the time.

The pastor who married her grandparents was white, which was almost unheard of.

“These are just little markers that if you’re not paying attention, and you don’t know your history, you think it’s just, ‘Oh, they got married in the 1950s, cute little family.’ But this is very progressive thinking,” said Jordan. “They’re all kind of working in harmony at that time and seeing people as people in those situations.”

Island life represented a different life for the Jordan family compared to those living just a few miles away in the rest of Lee County, although there were still unfortunate parallels.

Stores and schools were still segregated. White children who attended school received brand-new books and materials, while their Black contemporaries had to use hand-me-down materials.

But even with the similarities, the island’s children showed a different mindset that existed in those days.

Jordan said that when white children began asking why the black children didn’t ride the bus, parents went to the school board to ask why.

Jordan’s grandparents bought property on the island before Blacks in other areas were afforded the same opportunity, another way her family proved to be the first in some way.

A glimpse at the Jordan family’s past gives a clear view of how it is still working to shape the family’s future.

Six generations of the Jordan family have lived on the island. Even now, several family members still live in Lee County.

Christina said she and her family hope the Jordan Family roots stay on the island because of her family’s rich history.