Gibson leaves legacy of activism
East Side community leader held those in power accountable
The seeds that Rosa Gibson planted bloomed far beyond the community gardens that she so lovingly tended.
The East Side community activist who died last week at the age of 78 tended more than flowers and vegetables, she tended the civic life of Buffalo. Founder of a neighborhood Crime Watch program, leader of the Community Action Information Center and former president of the Concerned Citizens of Masten Park Community Block Club No. 1, Gibson was a tireless advocate of the real people who live in Buffalo, too often below the radar of public officials of all levels and stripes.
Initially moved to activism by a rash of crime in her neighborhood, Gibson became a force to be reckoned with for a succession of mayors and Common Council members. She demanded better police protection, including a share of the city’s surveillance cameras, fought to win the city government’s attention to the problem of illegal dumping and won more opportunity for public input into the creation of the Johnnie B. Wiley Amateur Athletic Pavilion.
An Alabama native who came to Buffalo by way of Detroit, Gibson was trained as a nurse and became the first black person to work as a nurse in the Niagara Falls School District. She won several community service awards along the way.
The gardens that she founded were both a labor of love and a symbol of what dedicated people, not holding government office and armed with nothing more than determination, can accomplish if they plant the seeds and see them through.
The seeds Rosa Gibson planted should continue to serve Buffalo for years to come.
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