N.C. A&T Alumni Times

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has faced many hard times over its 129 years of history: campus riots, crime, and protests, but few events quite like today’s COVID-19 pandemic. The last time our university faced a crisis, so large related to illness was the 1918 flu pandemic that devastated the world after World War I.

A substantial amount of North Carolina A&T’s history from that time is lost today and many details had to be pulled from regional archives, medical histories, and multiple newspaper collections. Fortunately, one legendary Aggie shared his memories in one of the most valuable rare books in the Bluford Library Archives. From these sources we have pulled together encouraging stories of what Aggies DO in the hardest of times.

The flu epidemic struck Greensboro at a transitional time for health among the city’s African-American population. It had only been four years since Dr. John William Vincent Cordice Sr., started the first hospital in Greensboro for people of color. The Cordice Sanitarium located off McCullough Street only had four beds. Dr. Cordice along with Dr. Charles Constantine Stewart and Dr. Simon Powell Sebastian established the larger Trinity Hospital in 1918 and operated the Gate City Drug Company, both located off East Market Street. Of these three men, Dr. Sebastian (Sebastian Health Center, Sebastian Apartments) was known for having done more to improve the health of the city’s African Americans than anyone in his lifetime. That same year A&T physician Dr. S. B. Jones was called to serve in the British Antiqua, and Dr. Sebastian took over his role, remaining until his death in 1937.

Even with a new hospital in development, the city’s African-American population was still overwhelmed by the new epidemic. The American Red Cross was very active in the Gate City and the Greensboro Red Cross branch for women of color was called the “Florence Nightingale Branch” or auxiliary. The Florence Nightingale Branch established a field hospital in 1918 for African American patients on East Market Street. The branch leader was Josephine Wallace, wife of Dr. J. E. Wallace former president of Bennett College. She publicly acknowledged the “valuable” help the branch was receiving from members of the A&T College, as we were known then. Conditions at N.C. A&T and Bennett were reported as being well with many students willing to help the community.

An unknown number of students, faculty and alumni from A&T and Bennett College volunteered at the field hospitals. Serving in the “Volunteer Epidemic Unit” was Mrs. Margaret C. Falkener, who 25 years earlier established A&T’s music department. The only student we could confirm that served in that epidemic unit was Ruth Hicks of Granville, N.C. Hicks was an enrollee of A&T’s summer teacher school. Sallie Morgan of A&T’s Guilford Institute served in the Hospital Garments Unit and Mrs. Falkener, and Martha J. O. Sebastian, wife of Dr. Sebastian, worked together in the Motor Services Unit. The A&T College also provided soup for patients that was served by the Red Cross canteen teams.

During World War I, over 250 Black soldiers came through A&T for training and many were quarantined there in the fall of 1918. A military barracks constructed during that time remained for years as a dorm. One of the young men who lived there was Samuel Cooper Smith (Smith Hall). In one account from his biographical sketch, he recalled that Capt. Robert Lee Campbell (Campbell Hall) advised the young men on campus to make a broth from onions to ward off the flu. According to Smith, this mixture did work, but it also warded off young ladies. Smith also stated that he would continue to use onions for cold and flu throughout his life.

The F. D. Bluford Library is actively documenting A&T’s experiences in the current COVID-19 Pandemic as well as providing helpful resources for accurate information. These resources are available at http://libguides.library.ncat.edu/COVID19info and research assistance is provided at http://libguides.library.ncat.edu/COVID19learn. If you have questions about A&T History or more information about this story, please contact the Bluford Library Archives at libraryarchives@ncat.edu.