Children 8 | ||
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Full Name Gilbert Rutledge Mason Spouse(s) Natalie Lorraine Hamlar (m. 1950–99) (her death); Gwendolyn Lewis Anderson (m. 2004–06) (his death) Parent(s) Willie A. Mason (father)Adeline Mason (mother) Books Beaches, Blood, and Ballots: a Black Doctora S Civil Rights Struggle Education Tennessee State University (1949), Howard University College of Medicine (1954) | ||
Gilbert R. Mason Sr. (October 7, 1928 – July 8, 2006), was a family practitioner and civil rights leader in Biloxi, Mississippi. He is noted for organizing the first nonviolent civil disobedience action in Mississippi in the 1950s.
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Biography
Gilbert Mason was born in Jackson, Mississippi, to Willie Atwood Mason and Adeline Jackson Mason. He received his secondary education in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1949, Mason graduated from Tennessee State University with a BS degree and received an MD degree from Howard University in 1954.
In 1955, Dr. Mason established a family medical practice in Biloxi, Mississippi. During his medical career, Mason became chairman of the family practice section at Biloxi Regional Hospital. In 1997, Mason suffered a stroke and retired from his medical practice in 2002.
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, as chronicled in Dr. Mason's book, Beaches, Blood, and Ballots: A Black Doctor's Civil Rights Struggle. The wade-ins on Biloxi beach started in 1959 to protest the segregation of the public waterfront. A second, and more violent wade-in took place on April 24, 1960, known as "Bloody Sunday". A third wade-in protest was staged in 1963, and it was followed by a lengthy legal battle. In 1968, Mississippi beaches were ruled as public by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and beaches along the Mississippi Sound were desegregated.
After the wade-in protests, a branch of the NAACP formed in Biloxi, with Dr. Mason as president; a position he held for the next 34 years. Mason also served as president of the Mississippi NAACP for 33 years.
Mason was an associate of Medgar Evers and was with Evers the Sunday before Evers was killed. Mason served as a pallbearer at the Evers funeral.
Mason's contribution to the civil rights movement was commemorated in May 2009, with the state of Mississippi designating a section of U.S. Highway 90 near Biloxi as the "Dr. Gilbert Mason Sr. Memorial Highway."
Death
Mason died on July 8, 2006, in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and was interred in Biloxi City Cemetery, Biloxi, Mississippi.