Ralph Mark Gilbert (March 17, 1899, Jacksonville, Florida - August 23, 1956, New York City) was an American civil rights leader and a Baptist minister.
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] 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.
The museum is located at 460 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.in the Wage Earners Bank building constructed in 1914.