Thomas McCants Stewart

Thomas McCants Stewart was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1853. Throughout his early life he became a teacher, clergyman, lawyer, and eventually a civil rights leader.

Stewart came to Hawaiʻi in 1898 where he helped draft the Organic Act of the Territory of Hawaiʻi after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy. He was instrumental in the Native Hawaiians fight to regain their Kuleana lands.

Stewart left Hawaiʻi in 1905 and continued his work as an attorney in England, Liberia, and eventually the Virgin Islands where he died in 1923.

Stewart’s daughter, Carlotta Stewart, graduated from Oʻahu College and became Hawaiʻi’s first Black principal, influencing the education system in Hawaiʻi for years to come.