George Washington Gibbs Jr.

Alok Jha talks to Leilani Raashida Henry about her father: the pioneering Antarctic explorer and civil rights leader, George Washington Gibbs Jr.

Born in Florida during the Jim Crow segregation era, Gibbs enlisted in the US Navy in 1935, and went South aboard the USS Bear. On 14 January 1940, Gibbs made history as the first black man to set foot in ‘Little America’ and the first recorded person of African descent known to have landed on the Antarctic continent.

Leilani, an author, facilitator, coach, artist, and public speaker, pieced together her father’s story after his death from diaries and contemporary accounts and wrote a book – The Call of Antarctica: Exploring and Protecting Earth’s Coldest Continent – inspired by his life. She has also followed in her father’s footsteps on two expeditions to Antarctica.

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Season 5 of A Voyage to Antarctica is made possible by support from HX Hurtigruten Expeditions.

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