Interested in learning about the historical relationship between Duke hospitals and the surrounding community? The following is a sampling of readings and resources with a focus on the history of race and health disparities at Duke and in Durham.
These suggested resources have been compiled by Dr. Jeffrey Baker, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and History, Director of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History.
- Duke University Medical Center (DUMC) Archives details Black History at Duke Health and includes videos, interviews, and oral histories.
- Bull City 150 This documentary project that exploring how Durham’s current inequities are rooted in its history. Its website features a very engaging on-line exhibit on the history of housing in Durham
- Durham: A Self-Portrait This historical documentary, directed by Steve Channing, examines the story of race and class in the American South and Durham over the past 150 years.
- Website of Occaneechi Tribe, Saponi Nation
- Keepers of the House. Documentary featuring interviews with Duke hospital environmental service workers.
- The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South by Osha Gray Davidson (UNC Press, 2007). Tells story of Durham’s history through two individuals, one a civil rights activist and the other a Klan leader, who against all odds came to recognize their commonalities and became friends. If you want to read one book about the complex interplay of race and social class in Durham), this might be it. Don’t bother with the movie.
- Upbuilding Black Durham: Gender, Class, and Black Community Development in the Jim Crow South by Leslie Brown (UNC Press, 2008). This is a story of Durham's African American community from the Civil War to WWII, centering on women
- Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina by Christina Green. This book examines the Civil Rights movement in Durham, demonstrating the leadership roles of women activists
- A Home on the Field: How One Championship Soccer Team Inspires Hope for the Revival of Small Town America by Paul Cuadros (Harper Paperbacks, 2007). This book offers a nuanced portrayal of the Latino community in Siler City, NC, not far from the Triangle
- Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy (Picador, 2015). Penetrating memoir by a Duke physician on race and health, and the experience of being an African-American doctor. Not primarily on Duke’s history, but very relevant.
- Foundations for Excellence: 75 Years of Duke Medicine by Walter Campbell (Duke University Press, 2006) Best overall history of Duke School of Medicine and Hospital
- The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball’s Lost Triumph by Scott Ellsworth The story of a “secret” game between the Duke School of Medicine squad and the NC Central’s groundbreaking team, set against the history of Duke and Durham in the Jim Crow Era.
- Point of Reckoning: The Fight for Racial Justice at Duke University by Theodor D. Segal (Duke Press, 2021). Recounts the Allen Building takeover and more, relying on personal interviews.
- Aaron McDuffie Moore: An African American Physician, Educator, and Founder of Durham's Black Wall Street by Blake Hill-Saya. Recent biography of founder of Lincoln Hospital.
- One Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Dr Charles Drew by Spencie Love (UNC Press, 1996). Lively telling of the truth and mythology surrounding the dead of the great African American blood bank pioneer in Alamance County in the early 1950s. Duke Hospital plays a role in this story.
- Museum of Durham History
- Historic Stagville. Stagville, the largest plantation in the piedmont of NC and home to over 900 enslaved people, was founded in the 1790s north of present-day Durham (before it existed). Historic Stagville is a 165-acre State Historic Site, entirely dedicating to teaching about the lives, culture, and labors of enslaved African Americans. Admission to the site is free. Self-guided and guided tours are available.
- West point on the Eno Park and Hugh Mangum Photography Museum. Reconstructed Mill, remarkable photograph collection from turn of century, illuminating lives of both Black and Whites
- Pauli Murray Center. The Pauli Murray Center for Social Justice is a nationally significant history site, anchored by Pauli Murray’s childhood home built by her grandparents in 1898 at 906 Carroll Street in Durham, North Carolina. Learn more about virtual events and the center’s outdoor educational installation about the life of Pauli Murray and the history of the house.
- Duke Homestead Historic Site and Tobacco Museum. Visit the historic home, farm, and factory buildings of Washington Duke and his family. Learn more about the Dukes of Durham, special events, guided tours, and online resources.
- Duke Explore app (features self-guiding historical walks on the Duke Campus and in Durham)
- Documenting Durham’s Health History: Understanding the Roots of Disparities in the City of Medicine; overview of health disparities in Durham, focusing on four examples across the 20th century (TB, maternal mortality, HIV, and Diabetes)
- Agents of Change: Activists in the History of Duke Hospital: Features oral histories with select activists
- Duke Sanford World Food Policy Center. Power and Benefit on the Plate: The History of Food in Durham,North Carolina.
- Bull City 150 features a very engaging on-line exhibit on the history of housing in Durham:
- The Latino South Podcast about Latinos in the American South by Duke Professor Cecelia Marquez
- DUMC Archives has oral history collections focusing on both women and African Americans, most of which are transcribed and available in digital format: https://archives.mc.duke.edu/blog/black-history-oral-histories-medical-center-archives
- Keepers of the House: Documentary featuring interviews with Duke Hospital environmental service workers.
- Website of Occaneechi Tribe, Saponi Nation: