CHAPTERONE

The Last Straw

As soon as he laid eyes on the young man who burst into his office, Dr. George Simkins knew he had a real emergency on his hands. Donald Lyons’s left jaw was red and distended, warping his face. His brow, arms, chest, and clothing were covered in perspiration. He writhed and moaned in pain and seemed to be on the brink of passing out. His temperature registered at 103 degrees. A friend had driven him to Dr. Simkins’s dental office in downtown Greensboro because Donald was in no condition to get there on his own.

Gingerly, Dr. Simkins coaxed open Donald’s clenched, sore jaw to reveal a bulging abscess around one of his molars. Simkins knew at once that Donald’s pain, though obviously excruciating, was the least of his worries. He feared more serious complications like heart damage, brain damage, coma and even death from a rampaging infection.

“Get admissions on the phone,” Simkins told his assistant as he doused the patient’s mouth with disinfectant and analgesics. “We need to put you in the hospital, young man,” he said to the disoriented patient in his chair, “so we can take care of this right.”

Once the hospital was on the line, Simkins informed the woman on the phone that he and Donald would be at the hospital in twenty minutes. He told her that he would need a small operating room to take care of Donald’s dire situation. “Hold on, son,” he told the young man. “We’re gonna get you some relief.”

***

L. Richardson Hospital was not the only hospital in Greensboro, but it was the only one for African Americans. Before it came along, sick and afflicted Black people in the Gate City could only hope for a vacancy in one of the six beds reserved for Black patients in the basement of St. Leo’s Catholic Hospital, which had scores of beds for white patients. L. Richardson was founded by Charles Moore, a professor at Bennett College and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College (A&T), who wanted an answer for his community’s critical need for quality health care. Moore persuaded the family of Vicks Chemical Company founder Lunsford Richardson to donate $50,000 for a colored health care facility. He then sweet-talked other well-to-do townspeople out of another $50,000. With that, he and a group of doctors, dentists, and businessmen broke ground for the 60-bed Greensboro Negro Hospital Association at the junction of Benbow Road and Washington Street. A source of pride and relief for Greensboro’s Black citizens, the hospital would later be re-named for its most generous benefactor. Within twenty years, it had one