On April 24, 1960, over a hundred Black residents walked onto the whites-only sand beach in Biloxi and waded into the Mississippi Sound. What followed was one of the most violent episodes of the civil rights era on the Gulf Coast — a mob armed with chains, pipes, and guns attacked the demonstrators. At least ten people were shot. Dr. Gilbert Mason, a Biloxi physician, had organized the action after being arrested for swimming at the beach in 1959. He kept coming back. The wade-ins continued through 1963, years before the national media paid attention. The beaches were eventually desegregated, but the story never gained the recognition of Greensboro or Birmingham. A memorial on the Biloxi beachfront now marks the site, but Mason's campaign remains one of the least-known major civil rights actions in American history. The beach you walk on today was integrated by people who bled for the right to stand in the water.
