Gus Courts was born on May 2, 1887, in Pickens, Mississippi to parents who had been enslaved prior to the Civil War. As an adult, Courts eventually owned a grocery store in Belzoni, Mississippi. Courts was involved in the local civil rights movement in the 1940s. He cooperated with the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, and in 1953 co-founded the Humphreys County chapter of the NAACP with Rev. George Lee.
