Looking Back
Local woman reflects on her life against backdrop of the civil rights movement

Associate Pastor Ruth Gilbert admires images of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King at the Howard Chapel. Gilbert met Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King when she was a part of the Civil Rights Movement. The pictures are part of an exhibit at the Chapel commerating Black History Month. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Much of Ruth Gilbert's life mirrors the important events of contemporary American history.

Throughout her life, Gilbert has often been in the middle of the social changes and political issues that have affected both the black community in the United States and the larger white society.

Gilbert, 75, sat down to talk about her life during a recent interview at Gallup's Howard Chapel of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Gilbert, an associate pastor at the church, is one of the organizers of the Black History Month exhibit at the church and one of the sponsors of this Friday's African-American music concert.

Message of solidarity
Born in Austin, Texas, Gilbert was raised by one of her aunts in a close-knit black neighborhood and community.

According to Gilbert, her family strongly emphasized the importance of education, and her aunts and uncles would regularly quiz the children of the family on academic subjects. Gilbert's grandfather, John Gilbert, the son of a freed slave, set an influential example. Every morning he would raise the American flag in front of his home, she said, and he would have his grandchildren read from the Preamble to the United States Constitution. He not only read the local newspapers, she added, he read black newspapers from cities across the country to stay informed of national news and social trends.

Outside of Gilbert's family, the local black church not only offered spiritual messages, she said, but it also offered messages about the importance of group solidarity and cohesiveness. Looking back at the sermons from her childhood, Gilbert said the pastors preached what is now known as the "theology of liberation."

The story of Moses leading the people of Israel out of slavery from Egypt was a popular theme, she said. As a child, Gilbert explained, she didn't understand the story of Moses took place several thousand years ago in the Middle East. She thought it was a story about her own black community.

"I got it all mixed-up in my mind," she recalled with laughter.

The ministers of her childhood also encouraged their parishioners to support the businesses and professionals within the black community. "Why would you think the ice from a white man is colder than the ice from a black man?" Gilbert recalled one of her pastors saying.

"We were very, very race conscious," she said of that time.

But although she grew up conscious of race, Gilbert said she never was personally subjected to any racist incidents as a child. She heard about such incidents, she added, through the conversations of her aunts and uncles who had to interact with Austin's white community.

Gilbert's grandmother and aunts would carry small, collapsible tin cups with them so the family grandchildren would not have to drink from the rusty and dirty "black" water fountains. They would fill the tin cups with water from "white" fountains as a way of getting around the prohibition.

"I think they were constantly trying to guard our self-esteem and dignity,"Gilbert said.

MLK and Malcolm X
Gilbert said she experienced racism firsthand in Atlanta, Ga., where she attended Spelman College, a black liberal arts college for women. One example, she said, involved the white clothing stores that did allow black college students in their stores. Although African-American students were allowed to purchase clothes there, they were not allowed to use the dressing rooms or try on garments.

It was during her college years that Gilbert became involved in the very beginnings of the civil rights movement. Through college classes and service organizations, Gilbert said she met many black and white individuals who were working to heal the gulf between the two communities.

"Before there was any civil rights movement," Gilbert explained, "there were white and black people who knew we were in a situation we shouldn't be in."

Gilbert became involved in programs at the YWCA, which was a very socially active organization at the time. The YWCA offered integrated programs, which was not the norm. Through the YWCA, black and white college students attended conferences, traveled, and worked on projects together, explained Gilbert.

After Gilbert graduated from college, the civil rights movement burst onto the national scene through Rosa Parks' defiance on a Montgomery, Ala. city bus and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s role as a national leader.

Normal social activities weren't part of her life at that time, Gilbert explained. Instead, she and her friends and co-workers devoted all their free time to promoting the civil rights movement. They organized fund-raisers and participated in marches and demonstrations. They also traveled in groups to different cities to hear King deliver his speeches.

"I would say I was a disciple of him," she said of King. Gilbert met King briefly once, she explained, when she was asked to introduce him as a speaker. Years later she met Coretta Scott King, when King's widow was working to get approval for a national holiday in her husband's honor.

While Gilbert views King as the founder of the "civil rights revolution" in the United States, she views Malcolm X as the founder of a "cultural revolution" for African-Americans. Although Gilbert said she didn't always agree with the angry rhetoric Malcolm X leveled at all white people, he inspired her to have pride in her African heritage. Through the influence of Malcolm X, Gilbert said she began to wear African clothing as a political statement.

From her years in the civil rights movement, Gilbert said she learned to "be a person that does not accept oppression" and does not "accept anything less than full participation in society."

"If there was anything I wanted to do, I did it," she said. "I did not accept any kind of discrimination."When Gilbert felt she was being subjected to housing discrimination, she successfully sued the apartment owners. In addition to her undergraduate degree, Gilbert went on to earn a master's degree in social work from Columbia University and a masters of divinity degree from Emory University. She also adopted two children in her forties as a single parent.

Spirit of Unity
About 15 years ago, Gilbert moved to Gallup to care for Leora Lovelady, the aunt who had raised her. Lovelady had worked as a teacher for about 30 years on the Navajo Reservation.

By the time Gilbert came to Gallup, Gilbert believes she had"transcended race"and "transcended being black." Rather, she explained, she identified with all people of color.

Gallup, with its combined population of Native American, Mexican-American, and small African-American and Asian communities, seemed an ideal community to Gilbert at first.

"Oh, this is great," she recalled thinking. "I'm in the majority for once."

However, Gilbert said she has experienced racism in Gallup while raising two grandchildren here. On occasion, she said, other children, mostly Navajo and Mexican-American, have taunted her grandchildren with racial slurs.

"They are taking on the attitudes of the dominant culture. But still it hurts,"she admitted.

She has learned, she said, that human beings have a tendency to be ethnocentric about their own culture. "It's difficult to not believe that what we do is superior to others,"she said.

But as she has tried to do all her life, Gilbert continues to work to foster understanding between people. She is happy to be an associate pastor at Howard Chapel, a small church that is made up of African-American, Navajo, Hispanic, and Anglo parishioners.

"We are worshiping in the spirit of unity, and we're trying to serve the community," she said of her church. "I think it's a beautiful picture."

— Reporter Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola can be contacted at (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or ehardinburrola@yahoo.com.