The Gone Incognita podcast features audio versions of Gone Incognita blog posts. Episode 11 is based on: Celebrating an Antarctic Hero, George W. Gibbs, Jr.
George W. Gibbs, Jr. served in the US Navy aboard the USS Bear, and on January 14, 1940 he made history as the first Black person to set foot on the Antarctic continent. Not only would Gibbs become part of Antarctic history, but the Antarctic would also become part of his history, shaping the person he became. Gibbs was in his early 30s when he applied to join Admiral Richard Byrd’s United States Antarctic Service Expedition (USASE) of 1939–1941. President FDR had asked the Navy to keep an eye on German activities in the Antarctic, where Hitler had launched his own secret expedition from 1938–1939.
Gibbs’s experiences during the expedition would show him a different way to imagine the world around him.
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