James L Gibbs

James L. Gibbs, 1905-1981

Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231642047/james-l.-gibbs

"James L Gibbs was a trail-blazer. He was a man who took community service seriously and spent his whole life working tirelessly for the betterment of the African American community in Ithaca. And he did it at a time when opportunities for black Americans were severely limited: a time when there were no black teachers in the Ithaca schools, when many businesses wouldn't hire blacks, when real estate agents wouldn't show houses to blacks outside of certain neighborhoods, when some restaurants wouldn't serve black customers and when labor unions wouldn't take blacks into apprenticeship programs. Born in South Carolina and raised in Richmond, Va., Gibbs first came to Ithaca in 1935. He was a social worker who trained at Syracuse University, and he became the first director of the new Southside Community Center in 1937, while it was still under construction. Southside under Gibbs was a full-service community center, providing job training for adolescents and adults as well as recreational activities for children." 

Donna Eschenbrenner, "Exhibit Remembers First Director of Southside," Ithaca Journal, July 12, 2008, 11.

"COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
  This collection contains materials of the late James L. Gibbs of Ithaca, from the 1930s and 1940s when he was the program director, and later director of the newly built Southside Community Center. Most of the materials are letters to Mr. Gibbs concerning Southside business, and issues relating to African Americans in Ithaca in the 1930s and 1940s.
  It also contains a folder separated from V-1-6-10, containing materials on the donation of photographs from the early Southside years."

James L. Gibbs - Southside Community Center Collection, The History Center in Tompkins County