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Tabbs Gross arrived in Arkansas in 1867. Born a slave in Kentucky in 1820, he purchased his freedom before the Civil War and moved to Ohio. In 1869, he began publishing Arkansas’ first Black-owned newspaper, the Freeman, in Little Rock (Pulaski County), Arkansas. Gross’ newspaper editorials criticized the Republican Party’s treatment of its Black supporters and pushed for more access for Blacks to power within the party. Believing in the “need for ‘peace and harmony’ between the races,” he also supported the restoration of political rights to former Confederates. By this, he subjected himself to criticism from Black republicans and others. Despite the controversy he created, the paper was short-lived and folded in 1870. That year’s census reports his personal wealth as $800 and his occupation as publisher. Gross’ goading helped convince Republicans to cede more political power to Blacks. Gross himself was an active member of that party, becoming a delegate to state conventions in 1876 and being “narrowly defeated” for a legislative seat that same year.
Gross was admitted to practice in 1869 by the state supreme court. After his newspaper failed, he became a law partner of Mifflin Gibbs for about a year. He then went into solo practice from 1871 to 1878, according to the Little Rock city directories. He died on January 10, 1880, of tuberculosis.
Sources: Judith Kilpatrick, “(EXTRA)Ordinary Men: African-American Lawyers and Civil Rights in Arkansas Before 1950,” 53 Ark. Law Rev. 299, 302 n7, 320-22, 332 n241, 338 n291, 345 (2000); Tabbs Gross, “Can a Negro hold Office under the Constitution of the United States,” 10/5/1869, Arkansas Freeman (Tabbs Gross, editor); Letter to the Paper from Tabbs Gross, 10/5/1869, Arkansas Freeman; Samuel S. Taylor, Survey of Negroes in Little Rock and North Little Rock 26 (1941); 1877 Little Rock City Directory; Littlefield, Daniel F., Jr., and Patricia Washington McGraw, “The Arkansas Freeman, 1869–1870: Birth of the Black Press in Arkansas,” 40.1 Phylon 75 (1979;