In the early 1940s, during the time of segregation in Asheville, Dr. Mary Frances Shuford led a campaign to establish a hospital for Ashevilles black citizens. Because blacks couldnt be admitted to the local hospitals, she presided over minor operations like tonsillectomies in a little bedroom off her kitchen with her black cook serving as nurse. Eventually she gathered enough community support to establish the “Asheville Colored Hospital” on Biltmore Avenue where Eugene Ellisons law offices are now located. This picture shows Dr. Shuford with Montford children in front of a house she converted into a community center in 1967.
