Ulysses Mason Jr
Ulysses Grant Mason Jr (born c. 1909 in Birmingham; died May 13, 1995 in Cleveland, Ohio) was a physician and civil rights activist.
Mason was the son of Ulysses and Alice Nelson Mason. He was sent to Chicago for his primary and secondary schooling. He graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1929 and worked as a Pullman porter before enrolling at the University of Chicago Medical School. He earned his medical degree in 1935 and completed his residency at Cleveland, Ohio's City Hospital, serving as chief resident. He received the 3rd highest score among the 112 physicians who passed the state's medical examination in 1938.
Shortly after earning his medical license, Mason married the former Melbahu Bryant, then secretary to the dean of Talladega College.
Mason joined the staff of City Hospital as a physician in 1939. He led an initiative that same year for the hospital to admit patients without regard to race.
Mason joined the faculty of the Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1950.
Mason invited other African-American doctors to help found the fully-integrated Forest City Hospital in Cleveland in 1957. He served as president of the board. Soon afterward he returned to City Hospital, then part of the Cuyahoga County Hospital System, as president of its medical staff. He was succeeded by Middleton Lambright Jr in 1962. He also served on the staff of Mt Sinai Hospital.
Mason retired from Western Reserve in 1980. He died in 1995 at the Cleveland Clinic, and was survived by his wife, Melbahu, and three sons. One of his former patients, Louis Stokes, delivered a remembrance in his honor before the U.S. House of Representatives.
Mason was inducted into the MetroHealth Medical Hall of Honor in 2014.
References
- Peery, Richard (May 17, 1995) "Dr Ulysses Mason, Civil Rights Activist." The Plain Dealer, quoted in The Congressional Record (May 26, 1995), p. E1149.
- "2014 MetroHealth Medical Hall of Honor Inductees" MetroHealth.org