Members of the Coconut Grove community gathered last week to celebrate civil rights advocate Thelma Vernell Anderson Gibson, whose life reflects Miami’s long fight for equality, as she turned 99 on Dec. 17.
The birthday luncheon fundraiser, held Friday at the Woman’s Club of Coconut Grove, honored nearly a century of service while supporting the next chapter of the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative (TGHI), which is working to establish a permanent home. Gibson was unable to attend due to a hospital stay.
“I am so happy that you were able to be there to help fund this new office that we want to make on Grand Avenue address and have a permanent office for the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative,” Gibson shared with attendees in a recorded message.
“The fact that God let me live this long is all that I’m really thankful for, and the fact that I’ve been able to do whatever I could to help make change take place,” she told The Miami Herald earlier this month.
A trailblazer
Born Dec. 17, 1926, on Charles Street, formerly known as Evangelist Street, Gibson grew up in Coconut Grove’s segregated “Colored Town” in a home without electricity or running water. She graduated from George Washington Carver High School in February 1944, coming of age during a time when Jim Crow laws influenced nearly every aspect of daily life. She later became one of the first Black nurses hired at Jackson Memorial Hospital…