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Craig Hughes is wrapping up seven years of research for a book about his grandfather, Dr. Richard S. Hughes, a pioneer in improving health care for African American people in Marion County.
R.S. Hughes established a hospital and health care insurance system in Ocala in the early 20th century for Black patients when health care for African Americans was substandard.
The article “Enough is Enough: An Historical Perspective” in the Delaware Journal of Medicine, published in November 2020, states that in 1920 the life expectancy of an African American man was 47.6 years while a white man’s was 59.1 years. In 1928, “to be Black and of African descent in the U.S. in 1928 was a risk factor” that affected health.
The book will tell the story of the American National Thrift Association (ANTA ) Hospital, which provided healthcare and insurance to African Americans during the days of strict segregation.
Craig Hughes and associates including Alonzo Hardy, Corey Edwards and local author on Black history, Cynthia Wilson-Graham, have collaborated on the project.
“Seven long years of research,” Hughes said.
Hughes, a high school football coach in Washington, D.C., expects to release the biography and historical research book (the working title is “Maintaining the Legacy of Dr. R.S. Hughes”) by December.
Craig Hughes said his research indicated the first local hospital for Black patients was Mercy Hospital, circa 1903, in the second floor of the Davis Building at 2 SW Fort King St., current site of the Mellow Mushroom restaurant.
Hughes said several buildings in the downtown area were operated by Black entrepreneurs during the early 1900s.
“I learned my grandfather was involved with a baseball team and traveling choir as well as being a physician,” Hughes said in a recent phone interview.
The ANTA hospital, also known as the Hughes Clinic, operated from 1925 to 1943 in a former hotel building just west of Pine Avenue at the intersection of Southwest Broadway Street, according to literature on display at the Marion County Museum of History and Archeology in the McPherson Governmental Complex.
Price Landrum with the Marion County Museum of History and Archeology detailed some of the history of segregated healthcare prior to ANTA Hospital.
Marion County Hospital, a wooden structure, was built on Southwest First Avenue and Black patients were admitted to the basement. Around 1928, a brick hospital was built and named after T.T. Munroe, a local banker who led a drive to fund a new facility.
Black patients were then admitted to the earlier wooden hospital.
By 1956, Munroe Regional Medical Center was constructed south of the circa 1928 brick structure and Black patients were admitted to the earlier brick facility.
The museum provided a 1928 photo of one of Craig Hughes’ uncles as a baby seated in front of a billboard for ANTA, which listed “hospitals, pensions.”
A state of Florida Historic Marker, dedicated in 2018, stands just west of Pine Avenue at Southwest Broadway to mark the location, now vacant, where the ANTA hospital once stood.
A narrative on the marker available at https://dos.fl.gov/historical/preservation/historical-markers/ explains that R.S. Hughes II graduated from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee in 1905 and moved to Ocala in 1908.
“Dr. Hughes helped form the American National Thrift Association (ANTA), a benevolent organization that offered prepaid health care plans, pensions, and other services to African Americans unable to get conventional health insurance. By 1925, ANTA converted the Savoy Hotel into a 50-bed hospital operated by Dr. Hughes and his nursing staff,” the marker narrative states, in part.
“Dr. Hughes died in 1943 and the hospital closed soon after, but his contributions are regarded as a significant advancement in healthcare access for Ocala’s black community,” the marker narrative states.
A June 11, 2018 Star Banner article about the marker’s dedication states the historical marker was the result of Craig Hughes’ ancestry research, which he says began when his father, Calvin Hughes, passed away in 1989.
Craig Hughes, a native of Washington, D.C., said his family has roots in the Ocala area.
The 2018 article indicates HOPS (Historic Ocala Preservation Society) made a $500 donation toward the installation of the historic marker.
“The HOPS organization was honored to have contributed funds towards obtaining the marker dedicated to the ANTA hospital. The road side marker is a wonderful way to pay homage to the medical professionals including Dr. Hughes who established the hospital and provided vital care to our community,” HOPS past president and board member Brian Stoothoff wrote in a text.
Cynthia Wilson-Graham of Ocala, co-author of “Remembering Paradise Park: Tourism and Segregation at Silver Springs,” wrote in a text message: “Dr. Hughes, as a graduate of Meharry Medical School, the first medical school for people of color, was inspired to open the ANTA hospital to provide quality, accessible medical care and health insurance to people of color.”
“(Dr. Hughes) and other minorities were often excluded from the elite medical training programs so he opened his hospital doors to serve the community which included other black physicians, nurses and medical students,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, Craig Hughes said he wants to shine a spotlight on the overall story of what he called a thriving Black middle class in early 1900s here. He said there’s a need for more funding for local research and archiving.
“I’d like to see history told equally,” he said.
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