Download Beside the Troubled Waters: A Black Doctor Remembers Life, Medicine, and Civil Rights in an Alabama Town fb2

I happened across this book in reading more about the integration of schools in Alabama. It is a moving story about a doctor who served his people and the people of this country during a shameful time in American history. Donnie Hereford should be remembered alongside the giants of the Movement. He was a fearless fighter for equality at a time when death was often the reward you got for standing up for what is right. In the end, he was hounded out of medicine. I wish someone could investigate Medicare and see if he might be exonerated. What was done to him seems not just legally wrong but morally wrong. I wish more people would read this book.

Such an interesting first hand account of how life was in the 60s for African-Americans. A Huntsville, Alabama elementary school was recently named after the author. A very important person and family in the history of civil rights in Alabama. Very interesting to read that Huntsville, while discriminatory in many ways, was more accepting than other parts of the state of Alabama during civil rights struggles. We bought this book for a middle school history project. While it is somewhat difficult reading for a sixth grader, it provided an opportunity for us to read this together as a family. We all learned a lot! I highly recommend this book for all ages, although there are some somewhat graphic descriptions in the parts about Dr. Hereford's medical practice.

I have lived in Huntsville for a good part of my life, though I was living out of the state when school integration actually occurred, and had never read Dr. Hereford's story. I am grateful to have this account of those times and of Dr. Hereford's courage -- well done! A keeper.

The best book I have ever read. The way it is written you seem to be at the kitchen table talking one on one with Dr. Hereford. I am so happy medicine has advanced for the better. You will be so happy you downloaded this book. This is the type of book you would to give as a gift.

An interesting story about one of Huntsville, Alabama's first black doctors and a civil rights pioneer. The book tells the story of the highs and lows of his life, his trials and trIbulations. It details how he lost his medical license and touches on his gambling habits.

This book is a first-person narrative by a black doctor who had important, disturbing, but interesting experiences in Alabama before, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement. He makes you glad to keep him company.

Dr. Hereford made history come alive. l have met the younger Mr. Hereford and was impressed with his unassuming story. Both father and son have played a wonderful part of history. This was done without violence.

Like the co-author of this book, the first time I ever saw Dr. Sonnie Hereford was at a public presentation of his civil rights story. Dr. Hereford was one of the few African American doctors to practice in Huntsville, Alabama in the 1950’s and his presentation not only included his own telling of his efforts in the civil rights movement in Huntsville that led to his son, Sonnie IV, being the first black child to be enrolled in the previously segregated public schools in the state but also the accompaniment of film footage that Hereford had shot documenting the local movement.

Finishing first in his class at a younger age than most of his classmates, Hereford was, throughout the 50's and most of the 60's, one of four black doctors in Huntsville. The hospitals were segregated as well as the doctors' services. Therefore, four doctors had to serve several thousand black patients. In the socioeconomic climate of that time, a majority of this clientele was very low income so Dr. Hereford did quite a bit of charity work, in some cases not charging anything, in others asking them to pay what they could afford.

One of the first protests that Hereford lodged against discrimination was his request that his fiancee Martha's picture be published in the Sunday newspaper on the weddings and engagements page. His request was denied. He went to the newspaper and spoke to the society page editor, who said that if he published Hereford's wife's picture no white bride would ever want her picture in the paper in the future. Hereford claimed that newspapers elsewhere in the country did it. The editor denied it. Hereford made a deal with the editor. If he could find one newspaper in the country that published the photo of an African American bride would the editor publish his wife's picture? The editor said he would. Unfortunately, Hereford was unable to find a newspaper in the country that did it after looking through papers at the newsstand from all over the country.

At the center of the book is Hereford's account of the civil rights movement in Huntsville that was ignited in January 1962 with sit-ins at local restaurants. The movement was mobilized and organized by a few key individuals who strategized carefully, knowing that the participants would be arrested and, therefore, bail money must be provided. Some of the most prosperous black businessmen and even a few white businessmen gave money for the bail fund. It was not illegal for a black customer to enter a restaurant and ask to be served. However, for the customer to refuse to leave after being denied service, they could be arrested for trespassing. A few of these protests brought some publicity but news stories in the local papers were buried deep within the pages and there was nothing that would be republished by the national news services.

One way to attract more attention and simultaneously galvanize their local movement was to invite a dynamic, motivational speaker such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hereford suggested they try to get King himself. Of course, they'd need quite a bit of money but fortunately King agreed to do it for expenses plus an honorarium. They couldn't afford to put him up in a motel so various citizens put him and his entourage up in their homes. King arrived on March 19, 1962 and spoke in the afternoon at the First Missionary Baptist Church and that evening at the local Seventh Day Adventist school, Oakwood College. A few months earlier, Hereford had invested in a small movie camera and became the local movement's photojournalist. This enabled him to document sit-in's at restaurants, demonstrations around the courthouse square and, of course, King's talks. Despite two dynamic speeches from King, the story didn't even make it to the front page of the local paper.

One act that might get more widespread attention involved Hereford's wife Martha, who was five months pregnant with their daughter, and Joan Cashin, wife of dentist Dr. John Cashin, another leader of the local movement, and her four-month old daughter Sheryll. They, along with a young activist, Frances Simms, decided to sit at one of the lunch counters. Naturally, they were arrested and taken to jail. When the mayor heard about it he decided to release the two married ladies with children on their own recognizance but not the single lady. Martha and Joan refused to go if Frances could not be released as well. They ended up staying two nights until they decided the point had been made. It had. The AP, UPI, Jet magazine and several of the major newspapers picked it up so the local paper had to report on it. A pregnant doctor's wife and another doctor's wife with baby in arms certainly drew attention.

Another effective idea was Blue Jean Sunday i.e. Easter Sunday. In those days, the local clothing stores did some of their best business at Easter when all the ladies would buy an Easter dress and the men would buy new suits. Instead, the activists would go to surrounding areas—Fayetteville, Athens, Decatur—to buy $5 jeans rather than give any of the local merchants any business, even in blue jeans sales. Some of the women didn't want to wear jeans but they bought denim material to make blue jean skirts. The merchants definitely took a financial hit.

Although Brown vs. Board of Education had passed in 1956 and schools were legally integrated the reality was that many southern states continued to deny black children into their schools. In 1962, George Wallace ran successfully for governor on a slogan of 'segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever' and vowed to resist national coercion at every pass. In the fall of 1963, Hereford's son, Sonnie IV, was due to start first grade. Hereford asked himself, why should he expect someone else to register their son for school when he had a son? Earlier in the year, Hereford and four other parents filed a class action lawsuit against the Huntsville City Board of Education in federal court to desegregate the public schools. They went to Birmingham for the case to be heard by a federal judge, H.H. Grooms. Hereford describes Grooms' ruling:
'When Judge Grooms gave his ruling he gave it right there from the bench, immediately after the case was heard. He asked the Huntsville lawyers, “And you're telling me that you're gonna have the whole school system disrupted?”
They said, “Oh, yes, yes, Judge, it's gonna be all torn to pieces.”
He said, “These four little Negro children? You mean to tell me, you're an administrator of the school, and you're gonna let four Negro children disrupt your whole system?”

That embarrassed them and the ruling passed. However, this had been a violent year so far with incidents in other states and elsewhere in Alabama. George Wallace was determined to resist any disruption. On the first day of school, Hereford took his son to the front of the school but it was closed. It was the Tuesday after Labor Day. Other white parents were there and they were also upset that the school was closed. The next day the same thing happened but the white parents could not enroll their children either and they knew why so they hurled taunts and curses at Hereford and his son. Earlier, Hereford had prepared his son for some hostility but told him to just let it roll off of him. They found out later that Wallace had ordered that the schools in Huntsville, Birmingham, Mobile and Tuskegee (the cities where the other black parents in the suit were registering their children) also not open. On Friday, state troopers were guarding the school and denied entrance. His lawyer recommended that he send a Western Union telegram to Judge Grooms. Hereford showed up the next Monday and troopers were there but they allowed him to register his son.

That same year, Hereford discussed integrating the hospital as well. He spoke to the hospital administrator, who was sympathetic. He said to let him think about it for a couple of weeks, then he would quietly tell the nurses in the newborn nursery to accept black babies. Then a few weeks later, he would do the same for the emergency room and the cafeteria. There were some stares at first and a great deal of awkwardness but after a few months, black and white doctors and nurses were talking and laughing together at the same tables in the cafeterias and actually getting to know each other because they were working together. This was a much more low profile integration but it actually overcame as many barriers as any other platform. When whites and blacks were actually given the opportunity to associate with each other and get to know one another they stopped objectifying the other based on the color of their skin.

Unfortunately, after the civil rights victories and triumphs of integration, Hereford's private practice was placed under scrutiny. Because most of Hereford's patients were low income earners and eligible for Medicaid, naturally, he would submit a large number of Medicaid claims. In the early 70's, Medicaid was investigating irregularities in paperwork and Hereford was accused of insurance fraud and prescribing medications recklessly. The truth, according to Hereford, was that he, like most other doctors, would often cover for his partners when they were out of town and see their patients, necessitating that he prescribe medications for another doctor's patients. The paperwork didn't reflect the reality and Hereford admits that his record keeping could have been more efficient. However, he was under far more scrutiny than dozens of white doctors who would not even read a patient's complete chart before listing a diagnosis. Ultimately, he lost his practice and his home in a plea bargain. The legal battle had worn him down to the point where he conceded defeat. Hereford still feels that because of his high profile civil rights activism years earlier he was under greater scrutiny than he would be otherwise.

Although the book is co-written with Jack Ellis, Ellis only writes the introduction and the afterward. The body of the book is Hereford's, and it reads like the transcription of a long interview. He speaks conversationally and delivers riveting anecdotes and tells his story in a straightforward manner. He provides a fascinating window into the life of an African American doctor in a Southern town in the years preceding, during and just after the civil rights movement. He can still point with pride to the fact that the movement in Huntsville to desegregate was accomplished without violence, partly due to the fact that Huntsville, unlike most of the rest of the Southern cities, was highly desirous of federal funding and programs that forced them to accommodate integration at a faster rate than many of their sister cities. Regardless of the circumstances, the victories in Huntsville in 1962 occurred before the march to Selma, before the march on Washington, before King's “I have a dream” speech, largely due to the courage and perseverance of people like Sonny Hereford.