Ralph Mark Gilbert (March 17, 1899,
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...
- August 23, 1956,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
) was an American
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
leader and a
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
minister.
Religious Ministry
From 1939 until his death in 1956, he was the Pastor of the
First African Baptist Church, located at
23 Montgomery Street on Franklin Square in
Savannah
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...
's Historic District.
Civil Rights
From 1942 to 1950, Gilbert served as president of the Savannah Branch of the
. Under his tenure, the local chapter was reorganized, hundreds of
Blacks
Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...
were registered to vote, a progressive white
Democratic politician,
John G. Kennedy, became
Mayor of Savannah and the city's Police Department hired its first Black police officers, known as the ''Original Nine''.
Death
Reverend Gilbert died August 23, 1956, while on vacation in New York City, New York.
[Savannah Tribune, August 30, 1956, page 1 and Savannah Morning News, August 28, 1956, page 17]
Honors
Savannah's
Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum
The Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum is a museum in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Named after Ralph Mark Gilbert, the museum traces the history of the African American community in the city, from slavery to the present day, with an ...
is named in honor of Dr. Gilbert. The museum is located at 460 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.in the Wage Earners Bank building constructed in 1914. Renovation of the building began in 1993 to house the museum and opened as Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum in 1996.
External links
Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum article- New Georgia Encyclopedia
Footnotes
1956 deaths
Activists for African-American civil rights
Movements for civil rights
Activists from Savannah, Georgia
Clergy from Savannah, Georgia
1899 births
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