The remarkable story of August and Sarah Mazique has an important place in 19th-century Natchez history. Former slaves, they became prominent land owners after the Civil War.

With the publication of her book &uot;A Black Physician’s Struggle for Civil Rights&uot; earlier this year, Florence Ridlon has ensured that another Mazique story will not be forgotten &045;&045; that of Dr. Edward Craig &uot;Eddie&uot; Mazique, great-grandson of August and Sarah and a prominent physician, civil rights activist and humanitarian.

Ridlon will be in Natchez Sunday to sign copies of her book from 2 to 4 p.m., at Turning Pages Books & More, 208 Washington St.

Eddie Mazique was born in 1911 in Natchez and grew up gleaning wisdom from his grandfather Alex Mazique and,

learning from his father, Alex Mazique Jr., that &uot;everything should be in its proper place.&uot;

Ridlon recalled her time in Natchez during research on the book, saying she loved the incredible beauty of the town.

Studying the Natchez of Eddie’s youth was both exhilarating and painful. &uot;Not all of his memories of growing up there were positive. But Eddie had no bitterness or hostility about his childhood,&uot; she said. &uot;He loved to come back to Natchez. He loved his relatives and his roots.&uot;

Ridlon in her book describes Mississippi in the early 1900s as &uot;one of the most miserable places in this country for blacks.&uot;

However, she said Natchez &uot;wasn’t the worst place.&uot; Discrimination and racism were rampant. But &uot;there were friendships between blacks and whites, and there were integrated neighborhoods.&uot;

Natchez provided Eddie Mazique his roots and provided an education. He graduated from Natchez College before leaving Mississippi to pursue an undergraduate degree from Morehouse College, where he was senior class president and graduated in 1933, and then a medical degree from Howard University in 1941 after spending some time as a teacher.

Mazique’s career as a physician in Washington, D.C., provided the arena in which he began to rise as a champion for civil rights.

&uot;He got his practice started and became friends with the top civil rights lawyer in the country, who told him, ‘Eddie, you don’t have to change the world, but how are things in your field,’&uot; Ridlon said.

Black doctors in those days could not be members of white medical associations. That meant many of them could not practice in the major hospitals.

That spurred Mazique to fight for desegregation of medical societies and hospitals. He had notable success in those efforts. He rose to become president of the National Medical Association, the black doctors’ counterpart to the American Medical Association.

&uot;As president of the National Medical Association, he began pushing politicians for desegregation and for better health care for all,&uot; Ridlon said. &uot;He worked with all the presidents, including Kennedy and Johnson on Medicare and Medicaid.&uot;

Mazique was talented in dealing with people, Ridlon said. &uot;He had a way of doing things that didn’t alienate people,&uot; she said. &uot;He had a great sense of humor and was a joy to be around.&uot;

And he loved his patients. &uot;He became wealthy but he stayed in an area where his patients who were poor people could get to his office,&uot; Ridlon said.

She spent many hours following him on his daily rounds and learning to love and admire the man whose biography she would write. He died in December 1987.

Ridlon is a sociologist, holding a doctorate degree from Syracuse University. She is a writer in residence in the department of journalism at the University of North Texas in Denton.

The 391-page hardback book, $29.95, is illustrated with many Mazique family photographs. It was published by the University of New Mexico Press in March.