Biography/History:

Gilbert Rutledge Mason was born in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, on October 7, 1928. The third child of Willie A. and Alean Mason, Gilbert Mason was educated in the Jackson Public School system. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Tennessee State University in 1949. Mason married Natalie Lorraine Hamlar of Roanoke, Virginia, on July 29, 1950. In 1954, Mason earned his medical degree from Howard University, Washington D.C., and Natalie Mason gave birth to the couple’s only child, Gilbert Rutledge Mason, Jr. The Masons settled in Biloxi, Harrison County, Mississippi, in 1955, where Gilbert Mason, Sr., established a medical practice. He practiced medicine for the next forty-seven years, retiring on March 1, 2002.

Mason was interested in genealogy and history. In 1986, he was elected to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s Board of Trustees. He served on the board until his death on July 7, 2006.

Gilbert Mason was active in the Civil Rights Movement, founding the Biloxi branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was also the first Vice-President of the Mississippi Conference of the NAACP. On May 14, 1959, Mason and eight others staged the first wade-in at Biloxi Beach. Nine months later, on April 17, 1960, Mason went back to the beach and swam by himself. The police arrested him for disorderly conduct. News of the arrest spread and high school students decided to join Mason. Fifty people arrived at the beach the morning of April 25, 1960. Wade-in participants were attacked by a large group of white men. In the ensuing race-riots two people were killed and over twenty people were injured. The event became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

In 1964, Mason and others filed suit against the Biloxi Municipal School System on behalf of a group of children, including Gilbert R. Mason , Jr. The suit, Biloxi Municipal Separate School District, et al. v. Gilbert R. Mason, Jr., et al., was filed in United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, and sought to eliminate the segregation in the Biloxi school system. Gilbert Mason’s contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi were documented in Beaches, Blood, and Ballots: A Black Doctor’s Civil Rights Struggle published in 2000.

Scope and Content:

This collection contains correspondence, photographs, legal and social papers, reports, transcriptions of oral histories, publications and newsclippings. The collection focuses on the activities of Gilbert Rutledge Mason during the Civil Rights Movement. The papers also include considerable materials concerning the Mason family genealogy. Please see Appendix I for more information.

Bibliography:

1. “Longtime MDAH Trustee, Civil Rights Pioneer, Dies.” Mississippi History Newsletter (Jackson, Miss.), August 2006.
2. Mason, Gilbert R., M.D., and James Patterson Smith. Beaches, Blood, and Ballots: A Black Doctor’s Civil Rights Struggle. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2000.
3. “Mason left mark by fighting Jim Crow system.” The Clarion Ledger (Jackson, Miss.) 10 July 2006.
4. Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Library. Subject File: “Mason, Gilbert Rutledge, Sr.”