For Black History Month, the Globe is featuring profiles on the living civil rights leaders who were named Boston “heroes” on the 1965 Freedom Plaza that surrounds the Embrace sculpture.
At almost 100 years of age, World War II veteran, entrepreneur, and civil rights activist Marvin E. Gilmore Jr. is still working.
The spirited 99-year-old cofounded the first Black-owned bank in Massachusetts in the late 1960s. Though he had no educational background in economics, Gilmore saw injustice in the way communities of color were prejudiced at banks, and so he decided to address such discrimination by opening the Unity Bank and Trust Company in Roxbury.
Gilmore also had a personal experience that inspired him. After he returned home from serving in World War II — earning France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor — he struggled to buy his own home. When he applied for a mortgage at the bank, he was met with resistance and recalls telling the bank teller, “You know sir, I’m going to own my own bank.”
Three years later, with the help of his business partner Donald Sneed, he did.
Today, the Unity Bank and Trust Company is a national chain called OneUnited Bank, with ownership still held by Black community leaders, something Gilmore says is “keeping the bank in the hands of minorities.”
Gilmore joined the Army in December 1942. He said he faced discrimination while serving in his segregated unit, which did not receive recognition for outstanding bravery at the time (he later did). The discrimination he faced on top of the challenges of war fueled his passion to fight for equality after returning home, where he also faced “the same dangers from the KKK.”
His mother and his grandmother, who lived to be 107, were two driving forces behind his desire to create social change.
“My mother and I worked together, cooking, cleaning, driving, chauffeuring for Boston people,” he said. “[She and my grandmother] trained me to be somebody.”
Gilmore worked in entertainment as well and focused on promoting diversity in Boston’s music scene.
After attending the New England Conservatory of Music, where he received a degree in percussion and performance in 1951, he was inspired to open the “Western Front,” a Cambridge jazz and reggae club, which operated for 46 years.
But Gilmore remains most proud of his accomplishments in the economic sector, having served as the president and CEO for 43 years at the Community Development Corporation of Boston, a nonprofit economic development organization.
“Economics became a part of my life,” he told the Globe, mentioning the recreational cannabis dispensary, also dubbed Western Front, he opened four years ago, the proceeds of which go toward helping young Black men who have been to jail and prison find a path when they are released.
Having never used the substance himself, Gilmore took advantage of Massachusetts’ marijuana legalization to provide another outlet to help community members in need find jobs.
“My life has been about helping the community, helping young men who never had a chance,” he said. “All of my life I have spent doing that.”
Gilmore remains an active adviser on many local boards, including for his alma mater, the New England Conservatory of Music, at UMass Boston, and The Roxbury Trust Fund.
With his wife, Lorna, who died 20 years ago, he established the Marvin & Lorna Gilmore Foundation for African American and international students at Brandeis University.
Gilmore lives in Cambridge, where he has spent the bulk of his life, and enjoys seeing how the landscape continually changes. “In 100 years, you see a lot of changes,” he said, laughing.
He’s out and about, helping with Western Front, and keeping in touch with his adult children, who he said are a hallmark in his life and can claim their own successes.
“I hope in what I’ve done and what I’ve achieved, that this legacy will go on,” he said. “I’ve done something that’s made sense and I hope the younger generation will profit from it.”
This story was produced by the Globe’s Money, Power, and Inequality team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter here.
Alexa Coultoff can be reached at alexa.coultoff@globe.com. Follow her @alexacoultoff.