Ralph Mark Gilbert

Infobox revolution biography
name = Ralph Mark Gilbert
lived = Lived until August 23, 1956
placeofbirth = Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
dateofdeath = August 23, 1956
placeofdeath = Savannah, Georgia, U.S.


caption =
alternate name =
movement = African-American Civil Rights Movement
organizations = NAACP

Ralph Mark Gilbert was a civil rights leader and a Baptist minister, who had Black heritage and was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia.

Religious Ministry

From 1939 until his death in 1956, he was the Pastor of the First African Baptist Church, located at23 Montgomery Street on Franklin Square in Savannah's Historic District. [ [http://www.oldestblackchurch.org/html/body_r.gilbert.htm Reverend Ralph Mark Gilbert, First African Baptist Church, Savannah] ]

Civil Rights

From 1942 to 1950, Gilbert served as president of the Savannah Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). [ [http://www.sip.armstrong.edu/CivilRightsMuseum/info.html The Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum] ] Under his tenure, the local chapter was reorganized, hundreds of Blacks 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". [ [http://www.savannahnow.com/node/330229 Son of city's 10th black police officer pens book, Adam Crisp, Savannah Morning News, July 23, 2007] ]

Death

Reverend Gilbert died in August 23, 1956.

Honors

The Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, located in a 1914 structure at 460 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Savannah and established in 1993, was named to honor him.

External links

* [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2734&hl=y Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum article] - New Georgia Encyclopedia
* [http://www.sip.armstrong.edu/CivilRightsMuseum/Essay.html The Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum]

Footnotes