Oral history interview with Andrew Best, April 19, 1997
Subtitle: interview R-0011, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Thomas, Karen Kruse, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; African American physicians; Discrimination in medical care; Segregation; Race relations; Civil rights; Medicine; Societies; Old North State Medical Society
Other titles: Interview R-0011, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Andrew Best, April 19, 1997; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Activist and physician Andrew Best describes his experiences as an African American medical practitioner in civil rights-era North Carolina, and his own efforts to desegregate medical practice and spur integration in other arenas across the state. After attending all-black schools, including one of the few medical schools that admitted African Americans, and fighting in World War II in a segregated regiment, Best devoted himself to integrating the medical practice in his community as well as changing the mindsets of segregationists. He did so using a variety of methods, but his primary tool was communication. A member of at least two interracial organizations, he sought to convince both the black and white communities of the wisdom of integration. Posing the most significant challenge to his goal were the die-hard segregationists who might, for example, refuse service at a store even to a black doctor who had just treated an injured white police officer. This interview provides a detailed look at the dismantling of segregated medicine and the enduring obstacles to equality of care.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on May 29, 2008).

Interview participants: Andrew Best, interviewee; Karen Kruse Thomas, interviewer.

Duration: 02:17:43.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 130.9 kilobytes, 252 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series R, Special research projects, interview R-0011, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Karen Kruse Thomas. Original transcript: 23 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.