Gilbert R. Mason
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Dr. Gilbert R. Mason Sr. (October 7, 1928 – July 8, 2006), was a physician with a family practice, a civil rights leader, and author in
Biloxi, Mississippi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. It lies on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast in southern Mississippi, bordering the city of Gulfport, Mississippi, Gulfport to its west. The adjacent cities ar ...
. He organized three wade-ins from 1959 to 1963 to desegregate the city's federally funded public beaches. This was the first nonviolent civil disobedience action conducted in Mississippi in the 1950s. After conducting the second protest on April 24, 1960, which was attacked by white mobs, Mason helped found the Biloxi chapter of the NAACP, and was elected president. He served in that position for more than 30 years, as well as head of the Mississippi state NAACP. In addition to his practice, Mason gained full privileges at Biloxi Regional Hospital and later served as chairman of family practice there. Late in life he wrote a memoir about his early political activities, called ''Beaches, Blood, and Ballots: A Black Doctor's Civil Rights Struggle'' (2000).


Biography

Gilbert Mason was born in
Jackson, Mississippi Jackson is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city sits on the Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana), Pearl River and is locate ...
, the state capital, to Willie Atwood Mason and Adeline (Jackson) Mason. He received his
secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...
at Lanier High School in Jackson, graduating in 1945. In 1949, Mason graduated from
Tennessee State University Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennes ...
with a BS degree and received an MD degree in 1954 from
Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...
, a
historically black college Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...
. He served his internship in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1955, Dr. Mason moved to the Gulf Coast and established a family medical practice in
Biloxi, Mississippi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. It lies on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast in southern Mississippi, bordering the city of Gulfport, Mississippi, Gulfport to its west. The adjacent cities ar ...
. He was the second African-American doctor in Harrison County, after Dr. Felix Dunn from Biloxi. Dunn had established his practice in Gulfport, where he also led the local NAACP branch. The two doctors became colleagues. Mason had married Natalie Hamlar in 1950. They had children together, including a son, Gilbert Mason Jr., who became a doctor like his father. Dr. Mason also had two other sons, David Antony Mason and Adam Atwood Mason in 1977 and 1978 respectively. During his medical career, Mason quickly gained respect, but due to local racial conditions, he did not have full privileges at Biloxi Hospital for 15 years. He eventually became chairman of the family practice section at Biloxi Regional Hospital. In 1997, Mason suffered a stroke, and his wife Natalie died in 1999. Mason retired from his medical practice in 2002. In 2004 he married again, to Gwendolyn Lewis Anderson.


Civil rights leader

Dr. Mason is most notable for organizing and participating in Mississippi's first nonviolent civil disobedience action, known as the Biloxi wade-ins, which took place from 1959 to 1963. He and some other men concerned about local conditions set up a Citizens Action Committee, hoping to lessen discrimination. In 1959 he and Dr. Felix Dunn and their families, including children, went swimming at the Biloxi beach to protest the racial segregation of the 26-mile long public waterfront. He and Dunn were taken to the police station and told they could not use the sand beaches, that these were claimed as private property by adjacent homeowners. In April 1960, Mason returned to the beach and was arrested. When other African Americans learned of this, they expressed their support of him. A week later on April 24, 1960, he and others gathered at the beach in a second wade-in to assert their rights to use the public lands. The group of 125 people included elderly men and women, as well as younger adults, teenagers and children. They were attacked by groups of whites across the beaches, in what became known as " Bloody Sunday". The Biloxi police stood by without taking action. Mason led a third wade-in protest at the beach in the spring 1963, two weeks after the funeral for Medgar Evers, who was assassinated. The protesters faced a much larger group of nearly 2000 white protesters, but this time the police prevented violence against them. A legal challenge to the segregation had been initiated by the US Department of Justice in May 1960, but had been delayed in getting a court hearing. It was not decided until 1968, when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Mississippi beaches were public (private homeowners had claimed territory on the beach and into the water) and had to be desegregated by federal law. The state decided against appealing the decision to the US Supreme Court.


Next actions

In 1960, Mason and other activists organized a grassroots effort for a voter registration drive. African Americans had been largely disenfranchised since the turn of the century by the 1890 constitution that imposed poll taxes and literacy tests as barriers. Administration by white officials meant that rulings were subjectively decided against African Americans. After the wade-in protests, Mason and other activists formed the first chapter in Biloxi of the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
; he was chosen as president and served in that position for the next 34 years. Mason also served as president of the Mississippi state NAACP for 33 years. In 2000, Mason published a memoir about the wade-ins, entitled ''Beaches, Blood, and Ballots: A Black Doctor's Civil Rights Struggle''. It was written with James Patterson Smith and published by University Press of Mississippi.


Death and legacy

Mason died on July 8, 2006, in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. He was interred in Biloxi City Cemetery, Biloxi, Mississippi. Mason's contributions to the civil rights movement were honored posthumously in May 2009 and 2010. The state of Mississippi designated a section of U.S. Highway 90 near Biloxi as the "Dr. Gilbert Mason Sr. Memorial Highway." In addition, the state installed historic markers commemorating these civil rights events on the beach in 2009 and at the Biloxi Light in 2010, to mark the 50th anniversaries of two of the wade-in events. The current marker was replaced in 2022 after the original marker was destroyed by storms. A Head Start center in Biloxi was named for him in 2010. In 2019, the
National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
announced that its third Regional Class Research Vessel would be named in Mason's honor. The Research Vessel ''Gilbert R. Mason'' will have dual homeports at the Port of Gulfport and Houma, LA, and will be operated by the Gulf – Caribbean Oceanographic Consortium, led by the
University of Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bac ...
(USM) and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON).


References


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Gilbert R. Biloxi, Mississippi Civil rights protests in the United States 1959 in Mississippi 1963 in Mississippi History of Mississippi Conflicts in 1960 1960 in Mississippi Activists for African-American civil rights Civil disobedience in the United States 1928 births 2006 deaths Howard University College of Medicine alumni Tennessee State University alumni