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Ralph Mark Gilbert

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@ New Georgia Encyclopedia

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Photograph of Savannah, Georgia civic leader and civil rights activist Ralph Mark Gilbert. Wearing a suit and bow tie, he sits in a chair and faces forward. Gilbert came to Savannah as pastor of the historic First African Baptist Church on Franklin Square, which he served from 1939 to 1956. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Gilbert was nationally known as an orator, tenor, and religious playwright. Gilbert, with members of neighboring churches and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, organized Savannah's Greenbrier Children's Center. Gilbert reorganized the Savannah branch of the NAACP and was its president from 1942 to 1950. He was the organizer, convener, and first president of the Georgia Conference of the NAACP. Under his leadership, more than forty NAACP chapters were organized by 1950 in Georgia.
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New Georgia Encyclopedia

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Digital Library of Georgia