Beaches, Blood, and Ballots: A Black Doctor's Civil Rights Struggle - Hardcover

Mason, Gilbert R., M.D.; Smith, James Patterson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1578062780 ISBN 13: 9781578062782

Publisher: Univ Pr of Mississippi, 2000

Synopsis

An eyewitness account by a major participant in the struggle to integrate the Gulf Coast is enhanced by documents from the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission's newly opened secret files.

About this title

From the Back Cover

A frontline memoir from the Biloxi physician who fought to bring civil rights justice to the Mississippi Gulf Coast

This book, the first to focus on the integration of the Gulf Coast, is Dr. Gilbert R. Mason's eyewitness account of harrowing episodes that occurred there during the civil rights movement. Newly opened by court order, documents from the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission's secret files enhance this riveting memoir written by a major civil rights figure in Mississippi. He joined his friends and allies Aaron Henry and the martyred Medgar Evers to combat injustices in one of the nation's most notorious bastions of segregation.

In Mississippi, the civil rights struggle began in May 1959 with "wade-ins". In open and conscious defiance of segregation laws, Mason led nine black Biloxians onto a restricted spot along the twenty-six-mile beach. A year later more wade-ins on beaches reserved for whites set off the bloodiest race riot in the state's history and led the U.S. Justice Department to initiate the first-ever federal court challenge of Mississippi segregationist laws and practices. Simultaneously, Mason and local activists began their work on the state's first school desegregation suit. As the coordinator of the strategy, he faced threats to his life.

Mason's memoir gives readers a documented journey through the daily humiliations that segregation and racism imposed upon the black populace -- upon fathers, mothers, children, laborers, and professionals. This excerpt is from the chapter "Ballots, Beaches, Bullets" and takes place in 1960 at the height of the struggle when victory is close at hand.

From the Inside Flap

"The book, the first to focus on the integration of the Gulf Coast, is a riveting memoir by Mason, a major civil rights figure in Mississippi who fought with Medgar Evers, Aaron Henry, and others to combat the injustice of segregation." --Mississippi History Newsletter

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Pr of Mississippi
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1578062780
• ISBN 13: 9781578062782
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 227