Nathaniel Glover Jr.
*Nat Glover was born on this date in 1943. He is a Black college administrator, former police officer, and sheriff.
Nathaniel Glover Jr. was born and attended public schools in Jacksonville. As a young man, he experienced the racism of the early 1960s when he stumbled into Ax Handle Saturday. On that day, white men, including some members of the Ku Klux Klan, gathered in Hemming Park and attacked Civil rights protesters. Glover said he ran to the police, expecting them to arrest the thugs, but was told to leave town or risk being killed.
Glover graduated from Edward Waters College in 1966 and received a master's degree from the University of North Florida; he also graduated from the 130th Session of the FBI National Academy. Glover was a starting linebacker and team captain for the Edward Waters College football team. Glover joined the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO) in 1966 as an investigator in the Detective Division in 1969 and was promoted to Sergeant in 1974. In 1991, he was named Director of Police Services, one of the JSO's top positions. He was elected Sheriff of Jacksonville in 1995. He was the first Black elected sheriff in Florida since the end of Reconstruction and was re-elected in 1999.
Glover served at the time of the Brenton Butler case in 2000, in which the 15-year-old Butler was falsely accused of murder. Butler confessed to the crime but later testified that two JSO detectives, including Nat Glover's son Michael Glover, had physically attacked and coerced him into confessing. Butler was acquitted, and the JSO and State Attorney's Office took the unusual step of apologizing to him. In 2003, Glover ran for Mayor of Jacksonville but was defeated in the most expensive mayoral race in Jacksonville's history.
The campaign was briefly marred by racism; after a white Republican candidate endorsed Glover after being defeated in the open primary, his business was vandalized with racial slurs against Glover. Vandals also spray-painted racist graffiti on Glover's headquarters, though witnesses to the crime described the vandals of this incident as being black males.
Glover and his wife, Doris J. Bailey, have two children, two grandsons, and a granddaughter. He says his most admired people are Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Wright brothers. Nat Glover stated, "I always felt like if I could make the children and the senior citizens safe, everyone in between would be OK". After retiring from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Glover served on several boards and was hired as a special adviser by the University of North Florida. During his career, Glover maintained a relationship with his alma mater, where he is a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
In 2005, he served on Edward Waters College's presidential search committee, joined EWC's Board of Trustees in 2008, and when Williams resigned effective May 15, 2010, Glover was quickly approved as interim president. In February 2011, the position was made permanent. In the summer of 2014, Glover was a finalist for the HBCU Digest male president of the year. In a story in the Daily Record, Glover recounted his journey to becoming president of his alma mater. Glover announced that he will be retiring in May 2018.
