Celebrated researcher and editor of African American history
MAJOR A. MASON III | July 15, 1940 - June 28, 2020
Major A. Mason III had an unslakable thirst for knowledge.
An academic at heart, Mr. Mason was a researcher, editor and student of African American history who was never more at home than when he was surrounded by his beloved books, said his daughter Arianna Mason of Edgewood.
“My father’s favorite place in the world was the library. If we took a trip somewhere, our rest stops would be libraries,” she said, laughing. “We took family vacations to Washington, D.C., so he could spend a week at the Library of Congress. Our house was filled with thousands of books.”
Mr. Mason, 79, of McKeesport died June 28 of complications from an infection.
The youngest of five children, he aspired as a young man to pursue a career as a musician.
“His father played the saxophone, and my dad played the trumpet,” his daughter said. “He was considered an extremely gifted trumpeter.”
After graduating in 1958 from McKeesport High School — where he was later inducted into the Hall of Fame — Mr. Mason moved to New York City’s Brooklyn borough, where he played with jazz greats.
“He practiced with Dizzy Gillespie’s band and played with Miles Davis,” said his daughter. “All he had with him was a few dollars and his trumpet, then someone broke into his hotel room and took everything he had.”
The burglary prompted Mr. Mason to join the U.S. Navy in 1962, where he served for four years as a specialist and a member of a military band.
“He told us stories about playing and traveling all over the world,” his daughter said.
By the late 1960s, Mr. Mason, who was Black, was volunteering at a local housing initiative in McKeesport when he met fellow volunteer Ann Floberg, a white woman from Wisconsin.
Their bond was instant and everlasting.
“My father asked my mother to marry him on their first date,” their daughter said.
The couple married in December 1969 and were inseparable, often working together for racial justice and equality, along with the other causes they passionately supported.
“They were very much partnered in their belief in the world in terms of social justice, advocacy and volunteerism,” their daughter said. “They were very much locked in that together. They did the work together.”
“They were a dynamic couple, and probably one of the earliest interracial couples in our area,” said Tim Stevens, a longtime civil rights activist and chairman of the Black Political Empowerment Project. “They were a living example of how people can just accept folks for who they are as human beings and I think they both projected that and lived it.”
Heartbroken, her father hadn’t been the same since her mother’s unexpected death in November, Ms. Mason said.
“She kept him busy and active, and when she passed, so much of that activity was no longer a part of his day-to-day life,” she said. “They were very close.”
In 1969, Mr. Mason founded and directed New Opportunity World, a nonprofit advocacy organization in McKeesport that published a semimonthly newspaper for five years.
By the early 1980s, he earned a master’s degree in international education and a doctorate degree in education from the University of Pittsburgh.
At Pitt, Mr. Mason compiled and co-edited a 562-page study for the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, detailing the state of Black youth in Pittsburgh.
Former chancellor Mark Nordenberg was so impressed, he ordered 210 copies to be distributed to the university’s board of trustees.
“It was a work of impact that reflected his lifelong commitment to young people, civil rights and the need to effectively address racial disparities,” Mr. Nordenberg said. “Those of us at Pitt were proud that someone who had earned both of his graduate degrees here was a leader in advancing such important causes.”
A devoted researcher, Mr. Mason spent years compiling an oral history of Blacks in McKeesport, and also documented the lives of trailblazers like the late state Rep. K. Leroy Irvis, the first Black man to serve as speaker of the House in a state legislature since the Reconstruction, and the late Daisy Lampkin, the first woman elected to the national NAACP board.
“My father took me along when he interviewed K. Leroy Irvis for hours and hours and hours. I would take notes on index cards,” his daughter said. “Growing up, it was something we shared together.”
From 1974 to 1996, Mr. Mason served as a researcher at the Community College of Allegheny County, curating and publishing data on future employment needs and guiding the college in the development of its first master plan.
His work there led Mr. Mason to become an evaluator for a state Department of Labor software system that projects employment needs throughout the state.
“His job was to figure out what the world was going to look like in 20 years,” his daughter said. “He was very much a visionary, especially when it came to computers. I was 6 when my brother and I were taking computer courses in 1983. We were the youngest computer students at CCAC.”
Mr. Mason’s interest in history and culture drew him to Africa, where he visited Egypt and Ghana on a study tour with the late historian Asa Hilliard.
“It was important to him to meet with tribesmen and medicine men and to visit the cities and be immersed in that culture,” his daughter said. “He just wanted to study everything and absorb everything from as many different perspectives as he could get.”
Mr. Mason shared some of what he learned with local youth groups, including the concept of “Sankofa,” a Twi word in Ghana that is used as a metaphor for looking to the past in order to make positive future progress.
“He was very much of the mind that — like this African perspective — you have to know your history or you’ll be doomed to repeat it,” his daughter said.
Mr. Mason also served on the council for the Black & White Reunion and volunteered in 2012 with his late wife to coordinate the 97th Annual Convention of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Pittsburgh.
“Major and his wife were part of the glue that for many years held together the Black & White Reunion and its summit against racism,” Mr. Stevens said.
Along with his daughter, Mr. Mason is survived by his son Major A. Mason IV of Crafton; his brother Gordon Mason Jr. of White Oak; and his sisters Margaret Friend of St. Louis, Sylvia Carter of Cleveland and Lorraine Turner of McKeesport.
A memorial service is being planned for a future date.