When a flu epidemic hit Georgia in 1938, it felled the only available white doctor in Jasper and Putnam counties, left hundreds of his rural patients with one hard-to-swallow recourse. They had to call on gentle Dr. Frederick D. Funderburg, a Negro physician. Working virtually around the clock, Dr. Funderburg attended as many as 60 white patients a day, succeeded in checking the epidemic.
Convinced of his skill, grateful whites have been calling on him ever since with all sorts of ailments. The relationship between a Negro doctor and white Georgians was awkward at...