Happy Birthday 2 Ya “Dr. James Francis Shober” First Black Physician in North Carolina
Dr. James Francis Shober, born August 23, 1853, was the first known black physician to practice in North Carolina. In 1875, at the age of 22, he graduated second in his class, with a grade average of 95.5, from the Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania. He received an A.B. degree. Shober then enrolled in the Howard University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. where he was one of forty-eight graduates in 1878.
There were only a handful of licensed black doctors across the United States following the Civil War. Shober now joined those ranks in 1878 and became the first professionally trained black physician in North Carolina. He set up his practice in Wilmington, North Carolina, then the largest city in the state. Wilmington also had a sizeable African American population. (via BlackPast.org)
