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| occupation = Businessman, politician
| religion =
| spouse = SeraphineLandry
| parents =John Sunday<br/>Jinny
| children =John Sunday III<br/>Edward Sunday<br/>Amiele Sunday<br/>[[Charles S. Sunday]]<br/>Daisy Sunday<br/>Henry Sunday
| signature =
| signaturesize =
==Early life==
Sunday was born in 1838 to John Sunday, a white man, and Jinny, an enslaved woman. Sunday's father was murdered shortly after his birth.
As a young man, Sunday trained as an apprentice to Ambrose Vaughn, a [[Warrington]] carpenter. In the years leading up to the Civil War, Sunday was employed at the [[Pensacola Navy Yard]].
==Military service==
During the Civil War, Sunday served in the Union Army, first with the 6th Regiment of the Corps d'Afrique and later with the 78th Infantry, United States Colored Troops. Then aged 25, Sunday was inducted into the army on [[May 15]], [[1863]] at [[Fort Barrancas]] and sent to Louisiana, where he quickly became a leader within his unit and was promoted to first sergeant. Sunday participated in the [[Wikipedia:Siege of Port Hudson|Siege of Port Hudson]]. , among other engagements.
==Post-war career==
After the war, Sunday returned to Pensacola with a wife, Seraphine, whom he had met in Louisiana. Sunday quickly became a leader in the black community. Sunday served was appointed a customs inspector for the [[Port of Pensacola]] before serving in the Florida House of Representatives in 1874 and . Sunday was later elected to the [[Pensacola City Council]]and served in that role from 1878 to 1881.
Sunday founded a successful contracting firm, which built hundreds of houses and commercial buildings throughout the city, as well as several other business and real estate investments. When Jim Crow laws forced African-American business owners out of [[downtown Pensacola]], Sunday helped establish [[Belmont-DeVilliers]] as Pensacola's primary black business district. When Pensacola's black Catholics formed [[St. Joseph Catholic Church]], Sunday provided the land for the new church.
By the time Sunday retired, he was quite wealthy; in his 1907 book “The Negro in Business,” famed black educator Booker T. Washington called Sunday "the wealthiest colored man in that section of the state," estimating Sunday's fortune at $125,000, or more than $3.4 million in 2018 dollars.Washington wrote that Sunday "is said to pay taxes on $90,000 worth of property" and "owns valuable holdings in the principal business streets of the city, and employs steadily a force of men to repair old and build new houses."<ref>Washington, Booker T. (2006). ''The Negro in Business'', p. 236. Hertel, Jenkins & Co., Chicago.</ref>
==John Sunday House==
Sunday died on [[January 7]], [[1925]], at the age of 86, and was buried in [[St. Michael's Cemetery]].
==References=={{bio-stubreflist}} [[Category:African-American politicians|Sunday, John]] [[Category:Florida House Representatives|Sunday, John]] [[Category:Pensacola City Council members|Sunday, John]] [[Category:People buried in St. Michael's Cemetery|Sunday, John]]
