ECU physicians to share civil rights stories

Don Ensley (Allied Health Sciences) and David Dennard (History) will direct a project to recount the true stories and experiences of black physicians in eastern North Carolina.

The project, scheduled for next February, will draw upon the personal experiences of five doctors who established their practices in the region during the 1940s. The doctors are Andrew Best of Greenville, John Hannabal, Jr. of Kinston, Joseph D. Weaver of Ahoskie, Roy Flood of Murfreesboro and Milton Quigless of Tarboro.

In a series of three public forums, the physicians will describe such events as the early periods of racial strife in the 1940s and 50s, the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s, and the establishment of the ECU School of Medicine.

Dennard will moderate discussion sessions in Greenville, Rocky Mount and Ahoskie during Black History Month. Ensley is the chair of the Carolina Health Group of Greenville that was awarded a $2,191 grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council to support the project.

The oral histories, given by the physicians, will be donated to the Joyner Library.