Rosetta Gamble Brown, or “Rose” as she was affectionately called, succumb to breast cancer on May 17, 2016 after a courageous battle. She was born July 17, 1947 in Orville, Alabama, the eleventh child to Nellie and Joseph Gamble. Her father and family were farmers from Alabama's Blackbelt but moved to Mobile in 1950 for greater work opportunities.

Rosetta was very active in high school and was an honors student, as well as in the band and several clubs at the all black Williamson High School that she loved. In 1963, John Leflore, local civil rights leader and president of the NAACP approached the Gambles to ask about allowing Rosetta to be tested and considered to be a part of a group of students being selected to integrate the all-white Murphy High School.


At the time Murphy was the largest high school in the state of Alabama so both the local and national NAACP thought that it was strategically necessary to integrate this school.



Rosetta Gamble and a young woman named Birdie Mae Davis, among others, were tested, screened and prepared to enroll and attend the high school. The NAACP provided legal counsel and the federal government provided protection for them once enrolled in the school. The student body was made up of 3000 whites in a very hostile environment. The student body held several protest marches to prevent my mother and The Davis girls from attending the school. In 1965 the students, including Rosetta, were a part of the historic federal Civil rights case called the Birdie Mae Davis case. She and Birdie Mae graduated from Murphy High School that year and the school was finally integrated. After high school she went to Kent State and later attended Tuskegee Institute. She went back to college at Birmingham Southern at the age of 38 and became the Homecoming Queen which was one of her proudest memories.

In 1975, she was in a car accident where she was pronounced dead at the scene but was revived after 7 minutes. The accident caused her to lose her right eye and collar bone but she counted herself lucky and blessed to be alive.

In 1998 she was honored by the National Voting Rights Museum with a Freedom Flame award for her role in desegregating Mobile high schools. She received the award along with Johnnie Cochran and others which was another major highlight of her life.

Rosetta Gamble Brown was a lifelong resident of Mobile until her illness when she relocated to Atlanta with her daughter.

She was proceeded in death by her parents Nellie and Joseph Gamble, her sisters Lula Lee Terry and Nellie Hale and her son Marcus Christopher Brown.

Rosetta Gamble Brown is survived by her daughter LaTosha R. Brown; grandson Keambi Lane; granddaughters Rachel Bowick and Margaret Tatum and great grandchildren: Iyanna, Justin and Trenton all of Atlanta. She leaves to cherish her memory her aunt, Margaret Allen of Mobile, AL; sister, Ella Wilmer (Johnnie) of Selma, AL; brothers,Tony Gamble (Louise) of Mobile, AL, Johnny Gamble (Seretha) of Cleveland, Ohio, Joseph Jr. (Leila) Gamble of Cleveland, Ohio; cousin, Gloria Perkins of Atlanta; childhood best friend, Ethel Waters of Mobile, AL;devoted friend James Banks of Mobile, AL; a host of other family members and friends

Her remains will lie in state on Friday, May 27, 2016 from 1:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Small’s Mortuary, 950 South Broad Street, Mobile, AL. A visitation will be held on Saturday, May 28, 2016 from 9:00 a.m. until the 11:00 a.m. funeral hour in Small's Mortuary Chapel, 950 South Broad Street, Mobile, Alabama. Interment will follow in Oaklawn Cemetery, Mobile, Alabama.

DIGNIFIED AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ENTRUSTED TO SMALL'S MORTUARY, 950 SOUTH BROAD STREET, MOBILE, AL 36603.

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