Interview with Herman A. Stephens, July 26, 1978

Interview Summary

A physician at a veterans hospital, Dr. Stephens has owned a nursing home since 1956. His family moved to Detroit while he was still a child and Dr. Stephens finished primary education in the area, receiving his medical degree from Meharry Medical College in 1936. His residency in psychiatry was served at Tuskeegee and he has practiced both general medicine and psychiatry for twenty years. Dr. Stephens, who came to Lexington in 1956, relates his experiences practicing medicine in Lexington and the role he played in the civil rights movement in the area. The relationship between white and African American physicians is examined, as are the difficulties he encountered at the hospitals, most notably Good Samaritan. Dr. Stephens also discusses the difficulty of attracting young, African American professionals to Lexington.

Interview Keyword

African American business enterprises African Americans in Lexington Lexington, Kentucky Race relations Childhood African American leadership

Interview LC Subject

Lexington (Ky.) African Americans--Civil rights--Kentucky African Americans--Segregation Hospitals--Kentucky--Lexington Integration Physicians--Kentucky--Lexington African Americans Stephens, Herman A. Stephens, Herman A.--Interviews Race discrimination Race relations--Kentucky African Americans--Civil rights--Kentucky Civil rights movements--United States African American physicians--Kentucky--Lexington African Americans--Kentucky--Lexington African American physicians African Americans--Social conditions Nursing homes

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.