A Black Physician's Struggle for Civil Rights: Edward C. Mazique, M.D.

"This powerful biography traces the career of an African American physician and civil rights advocate, Edward Craig Mazique (1911-1987), from the poverty and discrimination of Natchez, Mississippi, to his status as a prominent physician in Washington, D.C. Florence Ridlon relates how Dr. Mazique's grandfather went from being a slave to becoming one of the largest landowners in Adams County, Mississippi. This moving story of one man's accomplishments, in spite of many opposing forces, is also a chapter in the struggle of African Americans to achieve equality in the twentieth-century.

At a time when blacks were being denied entry into the American Medical Association and the staffs of most hospitals, Dr. Mazique was president of the Medico-Chirurgical Society and the National Medical Association, black counterparts to the all-white District Medical Society and American Medical Association. Dr. Mazique worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. and presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as well as black physicians, to expand the availability of health care at a time when many conservative physicians, both black and white, opposed the establishment of Medicare and other federal health programs.

Much of this story is in Dr. Mazique's own words, taken from interviews with the author. What emerges from this biography is a picture of an exceptional but very human man, who, despite discrimination and repression, excelled beyond all expectations.

From A Black Physician's Struggle for Civil Rights

"The power he had! I don't think there was a president that occupied that White House that didn't have him there for consultation. He was so respected as a human being, above and beyond medicine. When the people in the Civil Rights movement would say things to government people, they were suspect because they had to make political decisions. Eddie was someone they could call in who they not only trusted but respected. He had the type of integrity that even if government leaders wouldn't listen to his advice or follow up, the civil rights people knew when he went to see presidents and stuff, he wasn't back there lying. That was the great thing about him--his honesty and integrity."--comedian and political activist, Dick Gregory, speaking about Dr. Mazique in an interview with Florence Ridlon"

Florence Ridlon received a Ph.D. in sociology from Syracuse University. She is a sociologist and a writer in residence in the department of journalism at the University of North Texas, Denton.