Ralph Mark Gilbert

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Ralph Mark Gilbert
Place of birth:	Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
Date of death:	August 23, 1956
Place of death:	Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
Movement:	African-American Civil Rights Movement
Major 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.

Contents 1 Religious Ministry 2 Civil Rights 3 Death 4 Honors 5 External links 6 Footnotes

[edit] 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's Historic District. ^[1]

[edit] 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). ^[2] 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. ^[3]

[edit] Death

Reverend Gilbert died in August 23, 1956.

[edit] 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.

[edit] External links

• Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum article - New Georgia Encyclopedia
• The Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum

[edit] Footnotes