The school is named for Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, a black man who was Superintendent of Public Instruction and Secretary of State in Florida during the Reconstruction era.

Though the US Supreme Court struck down "Separate but equal" schooling in the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954, the first white student did not enroll at Gibbs (in a vocational program) until 1961.

Today, the high school is host to smaller learning communities that have curriculum pathways in Communication Arts, Travel & Tourism, Global Studies and a freshman Renaissance program.

[7] Democratic Presidential Nominee and Illinois Senator Barack Obama visited the school for a town-hall style speech on August 1, 2008.

[9] In 2024, Gibbs won the basketball state championship for the first time since 1969 with a win of 49-43 over Jacksonville's Andrew Jackson High School.