Francisco he and Lester were successful in business but dealt with community ostracization and assaults. As African Americans in California they were disenfranchised and unable to sit on a jury, unable to testify in court, and denied the right to vote. In 1851, he and Jonas H. Townsend, W. H. Newby, and William H. Hall, published the Alta California, "the state's only African-American newspaper." He was later a proprietor, publisher, and contributor to another paper, the Mirror of the Times. He was active in statewide conventions of black people in 1854, 1855, and 1857, and together with Lester, stood against poll taxes in San Francisco. In 1858, he and other American blacks were angered when the California State Legislature passed discriminatory laws intended to discourage blacks from entering or staying in the state: they were deprived of the right to own property and were disqualified from giving evidence against a white person in court. All black people in California were required to wear distinctive badges. Angered by these developments, Gibbs and two other African-American men went to British Columbia to meet with Sir James Douglas, governor of the province, to learn about the treatment of blacks in Canada. Douglas assured the men that they would be treated like other residents in this frontier area. Emigration to Canada Starting in 1858, Gibbs led an estimated six hundred to eight hundred African Americans, many with families, from California to British Columbia, where some settled on Vancouver Island. They comprised a major portion of the early frontier community. Gibbs became a naturalized British citizen in 1861, together with fifty-two other American blacks from the emigrant group. Gibbs worked as a merchant and also became involved in politics during his ten-year stay in Canada. In the 1860 Vancouver Island Legislative election, the vote of the black community in the election for the Vancouver Island Legislative Assembly defeated Amor De Cosmos. Victoria City Council Gibbs ran in 1862 in the first race for a Victoria City Council seat; he placed seventh in this race, having missed winning a council seat by four votes. He was elected to Victoria City Council in 1867 and served in that body until 1869. Confederation Movement In 1868, Gibbs was the Salt Spring Island delegate to the Yale Convention, an important step toward British Columbia's decision to join Canada in the confederation. Return to United States After about a decade,