Cities across Mississippi celebrate Martin Luther King Jr

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Mississippi's holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began with a candlelight march in Meridian, where a gala Saturday night raised money for scholarships for deserving young people. In Gulfport, the lead plaintiff in Biloxi's first school desegregation suit — now a 61-year-old physician who provides care to uninsured and under-insured people — was presented the MLK Coast-wide Celebration Committee's Medallion of Service award. There were parades all over.

Here's how the holiday was marked around Mississippi.

GULFPORT

Dr. Gilbert Mason Jr., who attended segregated schools until his father enrolled him as the lead plaintiff in Biloxi's first school desegregation lawsuit and won the suit, received the Medallion of Service award Sunday from the MLK Coast-wide Celebration Committee.

Mason graduated with honors in 1971 from the desegregated Biloxi Senior High School in 1971, got his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his medical degree from Tulane University. He now provides medical care to uninsured and under-insured people in communities along the Gulf Coast, The Sun Herald (http://bit.ly/1GkJvGq) reported.

His father, Dr. Gilbert Mason Sr., had led wade-ins — protests against the coast's segregated beaches — from 1959 to 1963, when filed lawsuits against both the schools and beaches.

"He was following the civil rights playbook, which at the time was desegregation of schools, access to public accommodations, civic engagement and social justice," Mason said.

He said his parents had two questions to keep him in line: "What if John F. Kennedy did what you were doing?" and "What do you think Martin Luther King's mother would've said to him for what you might be doing?"

Those questions, he said, "would humiliate me into believing that I was not living up to certain principles."

Other events included a coast-wide fire safety event, a prayer breakfast in Moss Point and parades in Gulfport, Moss Point, and Picayune, where organizers asked spectators to bring items for a food drive. United Way sponsored a day of service in Moss Point.

Mississippi has the nation's highest rate of house fire deaths, and fire chiefs in Moss Point and Gautier said the volunteers going door-to-door with pamphlets and smoke detector batteries could help change that, WLOX reported (http://bit.ly/1yEevvW ).

JACKSON

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed 15 days after congratulating people in Jackson for electing the city's first black mayor since Reconstruction, recalls Charles Evers, who was that mayor.

"He wasn't afraid of nothing," Evers told The Clarion-Ledger (http://on.thec-l.com/1KVR2LB ). "He always told me he knew he was going down sooner or later. He told me, 'I'd rather die for something than die for nothing.'"

King had a profound effect on Mississippi, and Jackson holds one of the countries biggest Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations. People lined the streets for Saturday's parade, and dozens of events were scheduled Sunday in the metro area. They included community service projects by about 350 Belhaven University students and services and children's activities at Millsaps College, put on by Millsaps and Tougaloo College students.

The civil rights movement was "the greatest thing this state ever had," Evers said. "Look at how far we've come — racially, politically, education. Things are almost 100 percent better" than in the 1960s, when King "was having to visit Mississippi so often."

James Meredith, who integrated the University of Mississippi in 1962, said King was "probably the most inspiring person I ever met, but he's dead." He said the King Day celebrations now distract black leaders from dealing with current problems.

"What most black leaders are doing today, once or twice a year, is celebrating (King) and providing the excuse for them not to do their own jobs," Meredith said.

TUPELO

The Committee for King gave its Drum Major Award posthumously to Palmer Foster, who worked for 36 years with the Boy Scouts of America. The award got its name from a speech King gave in Atlanta in February 1968, where he called on people to have "the drum major instinct," said Chauncey Godwin, who presented the award.

"That's what Palmer did with his life," Godwin said. "He was a leader and tried to make the world a better place."

The group also organized the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Service on Sunday afternoon, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (http://bit.ly/1yzY45e ) reported.

Bishop James Swanson, head of the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church, gave the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Service on Sunday in Tupelo.

King's "was a ministry to include everyone," he said.

MERIDIAN

A scholarship gala and a candlelight march ushered in the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in Meridian.

"Our theme is 'Education is the key to global access,'" said Bo Hawkins, a member of the MLK Committee that raises money for scholarships for people who will keep King's dream alive, told WTOK-TV (http://bit.ly/1ujUJG4).

The theme for the march is "Life matters," the Rev. Gary Houston said. The march down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive ended with a program at the historic First Union Missionary Baptist Church.