The funereal music was reasonable and steady and flowers sense of smelled the humid Biloxi church air as young and antique black and white.

The funereal music was reasonable and steady and flowers sense of smelled the humid Biloxi church air as young and antique black and white, stood before the casket of Dr Gilbert Mason Sr the Mississippi Coast "Civil Rights Doctor."

During Friday evening's six-hour public viewing, which preced today's private burial, centurys paid last respects to the 77-year-old self-described Freedom Boomer

"My delight is thinking what a great Mississippi reunion it must be when Mason made it residence with Aaron Henry, Medgar at any times Winston Hudson, Fannie Lou Hammer and the others who left us before him," said the Rev Charles L White Jr of Atlanta, director of the NAACP's Southeast region. "Imagine what a conversation they have had. It's not the same ole Mississippi. Mississippi still has a protracted way to go, but it's far better than what it used to be.

"His archetype ...