Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Edgemont Community Clinic Records #4545, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Linda Woodard of Chapel Hill, N.C., in October 1988.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, May 1990

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Laura Hart, March 2021

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Clinics--North Carolina.
• College students--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Community health services--North Carolina.
• Duke University--Students--History--20th century.
• Durham (N.C.)--Social conditions.
• Edgemont Community Clinic (Durham, N.C.)
• Health facilities--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Poor--Health and hygiene--North Carolina.
• Poor--Medical care--North Carolina.
• Student volunteers in medical care--North Carolina.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Students--History.
• Voluntarism--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Woodard, Linda.

In October 1968, the Edgemont Community Clinic in Durham, North Carolina, opened. The clinic, designed to serve residents of the surrounding low-income neighborhood, was staffed chiefly by health science student volunteers from Duke University and students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who were members of the Student Health Action Committee (SHAC). Holding sessions twice a week, by 1979, the Edgemont Community Clinic had logged over 2,000 patient visits per year. Clinic volunteers, overseen by licensed practitioners who also donated their time, administered general physical examinations, treated acute and chronic medical illnesses, and operated a free pharmacy and laboratory.

Throughout its history, the Edgemont Community Clinic never developed a secure financial base, despite support from Duke, UNC, and, for a series of educational programs in public health, from the United States Office of Economic Opportunity (O.E.O.). In an effort to strengthen the clinic's economic position, consolidation with the Lincoln Community Health Center, affiliated with Durham's Lincoln Hospital, was discussed in 1972. The inevitable loss of student control that such a merger would have involved defeated the measure.

The Edgemont Community Clinic survived until December 1978, when, because of worsening economic conditions compounded by a large population loss in the area and a vital need to repair the clinic's facilities, SHAC decided to move its operations to the adjacent East End community.

Materials in this collection are chiefly correspondence, reports, notes, and other items in office files retained by Linda Woodard, who was active in the Edgemont Community Clinic as an organizer and medical technologist. While correspondence and financial papers are not extensive, it is possible to derive a rough understanding of the Clinic's history from these papers. Of particular interest is a file of reports detailing some of the Clinic's operations and placing the Edgemont Community Clinic in the context of the national movement for community-sponsored free health care that was underway in the 1960s and 1970s.

There are also a few photographs of the Clinic, workers, and patients.

• Image folder (PF-4545/1