[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 89 (Tuesday, July 11, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1374]]
         HONORING DR. GILBERT R. MASON, ACTIVIST AND PHYSICIAN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 11, 2006

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize 
the life and legacy of an African-American unsung hero, Dr. Gilbert R. 
Mason, a civil rights activist and family physician, who made waves on 
the Mississippi Gulf Coast to eliminate racial discrimination in the 
state.
  Dr. Mason was born in Jackson, MS, on October 7, 1928. He earned his 
B.S. degree from Tennessee State University in 1949 and his M.D. from 
Howard University Medical School in 1954. In 1955, Dr. Mason moved to 
Biloxi, MS, where he started his family practice and shortly thereafter 
began to challenge racial boundaries. He contested and protested the 
``whites only'' section of Federally funded Gulf Coast beaches by 
leading a nonviolent ``wade in''.
  Jim Crow laws and intimidation tactics hindered and denied blacks the 
right to beaches, hotels, schools, restaurants, and jobs that whites 
enjoyed. Dr. Mason confronted racial injustices, and his commitment to 
civil rights spearheaded a movement in one of the first areas of the 
Magnolia State to see organized direct action. On April 17, 1960, Dr. 
Mason took a solitary swim at the ``whites only'' beach and was 
arrested. Hearing of his arrest, the following Sunday, student 
volunteers were outraged and joined in the ``wade in''. Dr. Mason and 
others were met by Klansmen and angry mobs that attacked them with 
chains, iron pipes and whatever else they could grab while burning 
wooden crosses. The ``wade-ins'' eventually led to one of the bloodiest 
riots in Mississippi's history.
  Dr. Mason successfully filed the first antidiscrimination lawsuit 
against the State of Mississippi and school desegregation lawsuit in 
the history of Biloxi.
  Dr. Gilbert R. Mason collaborated with the Mississippi NAACP to 
create a stance for civil rights partnering with CORE, SNCC, and SCLC. 
Dr. Mason worked closely with Medgar Evers, NAACP field secretary until 
he was gunned down in front of his home in 1963, fighting racial 
discrimination and championing equality for all mankind.
  In 1970, he became the first African American to be admitted to the 
Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians. In 1992, he helped Harrison 
County elect its first African American and female supervisor. In 1998, 
he published a book detailing the struggle in, ``Beaches, Blood and 
Ballots: A Black Doctor's Civil Rights Struggles''.
  The wave Dr. Gilbert Mason began on the coast of Mississippi will 
never be forgotten. Please join me today in honoring a true civil 
rights pioneer, Dr. Gilbert R. Mason.

                          ____________________