William G. Anderson (b. 1927)

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William G. Anderson (b. 1927)

Hatfield, Edward A

1927/1994

Encyclopedia article about William Gilchrist Anderson, who received national attention during the early 1960s as the president of the Albany Movement. Thereafter, he distinguished himself as an osteopathic physician, surgeon, educator, and hospital administrator. Born in Americus on December 12, 1927, to Emma Jean Gilchrist and John Daniel Anderson Sr., Anderson enrolled at Fort Valley State College (later Fort Valley State University), where he pursued a premedical course of study. His education was interrupted in 1944 when, at the age of seventeen, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in the midst of World War II; he was eventually assigned to a company stationed in the Philippines and was selected to join the navy's Hospital Corpsmen. After the war ended, Anderson graduated from the Atlanta College of Mortuary Science and worked briefly at a black funeral home in Montgomery, Alabama. Later after a visit to the Albany office of physician Willie Joe Reese, Anderson decided to pursue a career in osteopathy. With Reese's assistance, Anderson was admitted to the Des Moines Still College of Osteopathy in Iowa and completed his degree in 1956.

He interned at the prestigious Flint Osteopathic Hospital in Michigan, returning to Georgia afterwards to set up his medical practice in Albany. There Anderson joined a small but close-knit community of black professionals, most of whom belonged to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Urban League, or the Criterion Club, a local civic organization. The arrival of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) activists in the fall of 1961 inspired Albany's black residents to press more aggressively for racial reform. The city's black leaders formed the Albany Movement in mid-November, and they selected Anderson as their president because he was relatively new to town and largely insulated from white economic reprisals by his private practice. As tensions escalated he became convinced that local leaders lacked the financial and organizational resources to mount a successful protest. In order to shore up the movement's weaknesses, Anderson invited his old friends Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy to lead demonstrations in Albany. Although many observers deemed the Albany Movement unsuccessful, subsequent appraisals have credited the movement with increasing the number of registered black voters, inspiring protest in neighboring communities, and hastening the ultimate desegregation of Albany's public facilities, which occurred only one year following the movement's conclusion. Following the Albany Movement's dissolution in 1962, Anderson accepted an appointment as house physician at Art Centre Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. In 1964 he became the first black surgical resident in Detroit's history, and thereafter conducted a group surgical practice in the city until 1984. During this period he remained active in the civil rights movement, serving as a member on the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's board of directors, among other capacities.

In the years that followed, Anderson accepted a variety of administrative and educational positions in the medical profession including service within the American Osteopathic Association (including becoming the first African American president of the AOA in 1994), as a clinical professor of surgery at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (later Western University of Health Sciences) in California, as an associate clinical professor at the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, and as associate dean of the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Missouri.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata.

African American physicians--Georgia--Albany

African American physicians--Michigan--Detroit

African American educators

African American surgeons

Osteopathic physicians--United States

Osteopathic physicians--Georgia

Physicians--Georgia--Albany

Physicians--Michigan--Detroit

Physicians--United States

Surgeons--United States

Educators--United States

Medical offices--Georgia--Albany

Medical offices--Michigan--Detroit

African American business enterprises--Georgia--Albany

Drugstores--Georgia--Albany

Fort Valley State College (Ga.)

United States. Navy

United States. Navy. Hospital Corps

Sailors--United States

African American sailors--United States

African American sailors--Philippines

Sailors--Philippines

United States. Navy--Medical care

Atlanta College of Mortuary Science

Undertakers and undertaking--Georgia--Atlanta

Undertakers and undertaking--Alabama--Montgomery

Still College of Osteopathy

Flint Osteopathic Hospital (Mich.)

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Urban League of Albany (Ga.)

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

American Osteopathic Association

College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific

Michigan State University. College of Osteopathic Medicine

Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine

Civil rights--Georgia--Albany

Civil rights--United States

Civil rights movements--Georgia--Albany

Civil rights demonstrations--Georgia--Albany

Bus terminals--Georgia--Albany

Civil rights workers--Georgia--Albany

Civil rights workers--United States

Civic leaders--Georgia--Albany

Civic leaders--United States

African American civil rights workers--Georgia--Albany

African American civic leaders--Georgia--Albany

African American political activists--Georgia--Albany

Political activists--Georgia--Albany

African Americans--Civil rights

African Americans--Civil rights--Georgia--Albany

Political participation--Georgia--Albany

African Americans--Politics and government

Direct action--Georgia--Albany

Protest marches--Georgia--Albany

Nonviolence--Georgia--Albany

Voter registration--Georgia--Albany

Voting--Georgia--Albany

Suffrage--Georgia--Albany

Segregation in education--Georgia--Albany

Segregation in transportation--Georgia--Albany

Discrimination in public accommodations--Georgia--Albany

Discrimination in restaurants--Georgia--Albany

Race discrimination--Georgia--Albany

Race relations

Albany (Ga.)--Race relations--History--20th century

Albany (Ga.)--History--20th century

Albany (Ga.)--Politics and government--20th century

High school teachers--Georgia--Atlanta

African American teachers--Georgia--Atlanta

African American disc jockeys--Georgia-Atlanta

Disc jockeys--Georgia--Atlanta

African American professional employees--United States

African American professional employees--Georgia--Albany

Professional employees--United States

Professional employees--Georgia--Albany

Albany Movement (Albany, Ga.)

Harlem Cut-Rate Drugs (Albany, Ga.)

World War, 1939-1945--African Americans

World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Philippines

World War, 1939-1945--Medical care

Criterion Club (Albany, Ga.)

Art Centre Hospital (Detroit, Mich.)

Anderson, William G., 1927-

Anderson, Norma L. (Norma Lee)

Reese, Willie Joe

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968

Abernathy, Ralph, 1926-1990

Digital Library of Georgia

text

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