McBride Tour

Ernest Samuel McBride Sr. (November 20, 1909 – May 5, 2007) was an African American civil rights activist and community leader based in Long Beach, California. He fought to improve the working prospects and conditions of African Americans in the shipyards, grocery stores, housing, police and fire departments in Long Beach. He was a co-founder of the Long Beach chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Like Martin Luther King Jr., McBride employed Mahatma Gandhi's model of peaceful protest to achieve civil rights gains. He became a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO, which targeted many of the country's civil rights organizations and leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. - most famously resulting in the FBI - King Suicide Letter. McBride's legacy is memorialized in numerous awards, historic land marking of his home, and the naming of a high school and park.