Gilbert Moses (1942-1995) was a civil rights activist as well as an actor and a theater, motion picture, and television director. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Moses began acting in community theater at the age of nine. Moses studied at Oberlin College and the Sorbonne. He became a staff member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and, in the early 1960s, he co-founded the Free Southern Theater with fellow SNCC staff member John O'Neal. The Free Southern Theater toured the South during the 1960s, including during the Freedom Summer of 1964, when it performed the documentary play "In White America" in 16 Mississippi communities. Moses left the group after it received threats from southern whites and some members of the company were arrested. Following his involvement with the Free Southern Theater, Moses directed stage productions on and off-Broadway, winning an Obie Award for the off-Broadway production of Amiri Baraka's "Slave Ship" in 1969.