Gilbert R. Mason
Dr. Gilbert R. Mason Sr. (October 7, 1928 – July 8, 2006), was a physician who was a family practitioner and civil rights leader in Biloxi, Mississippi. He is noted for organizing three wade-ins, from 1959 to 1963, to desegregate the city's public beaches, which had been made with federal funds. This was the first nonviolent civil disobedience action conducted in Mississippi in the 1950s.
Dr. Gilbert R. Mason Sr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gilbert Rutledge Mason October 7, 1928 |
| Died | July 8, 2006 (aged 77) Ocean Springs, Mississippi, US |
| Education | Tennessee State University (1949), Howard University (1954) |
| Spouse(s) |
Natalie Lorraine Hamlar
(m. 1950–1999)Gwendolyn Lewis Anderson
(m. 2004) |
| Children | 8 |
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).