The Rev. Ralph Mark Gilbert is best remembered in Savannah as a civil rights leader and pastor of the historic First African Baptist Church, but these are just two of his many remarkable accomplishments.
The man for whom Savannah’s Civil Rights Museum is named got his start as an itinerant preacher and religious playwright, He was a powerful orator. Throughout his career, Gilbert wrote, composed music for, and directed at least 18 religious dramas, which he toured across the east coast and Midwest.
“The Guiding Star,” featured in this program from the W.W. Law Collection, was a Christmas pageant staged at Savannah’s Municipal Auditorium in 1943. With a cast of more than 100 actors and a chorus of 200 singers from area church choirs, “The Guiding Star” told the story of the Christmas Nativity, performed along with traditional Christmas hymns.
Newspaper advertisements and articles for “The Guiding Star” boasted that Gilbert’s plays held records for the highest attendance at the Municipal Auditorium, and that his following alone was enough to sell out the auditorium. With so many local men away serving in the Armed Forces during World War II, there was some difficulty casting the male lead.
Credit: Courtesy of the City of Savannah Municipal Archives
Credit: Courtesy of the City of Savannah Municipal Archives
To see more about this program, visit: bit.ly/gilbertstar.
City of Savannah Municipal Archives, Archives@savannahga.gov, Discover the Archives: savannahga.gov/MunicipalArchives.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah civil rights leader Rev. Ralph Mark Gilbert was also a religious playwright
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