Beside the Troubled Waters

A Black Doctor Remembers Life, Medicine, and Civil Rights in an Alabama Town

By: Dr. Sonnie Wellington Hereford III M.D., Jack D. Ellis

Narrated by: Kenneth J. Lee

Beside the Troubled Waters is a memoir by an African-American physician in Alabama whose story in many ways epitomizes the lives and careers of Black doctors in the south during the segregationist era while also illustrating the diversity of the Black experience in the medical profession. Based on interviews conducted with Hereford over 10 years, the account includes his childhood and youth as the son of a Black sharecropper and Primitive Baptist minister in Madison County, Alabama, during the Depression; his education at Huntsville's all-Black Councill School and medical training at Meharry Medical College in Nashville; his medical practice in Huntsville's Black community beginning in 1956; his efforts to overcome the racism he met in the White medical community; his participation in the civil rights movement in Huntsville; and his later problems with the Medicaid program and state medical authorities, which eventually led to the loss of his license.

Hereford's memoir stands out because of its medical and civil rights themes, and also because of its compelling account of the professional ruin Hereford encountered after 37 years of practice, as the end of segregation and the federal role in medical care placed Black doctors in competition with White ones for the first time.

©2011 The University of Alabama Press (P)2013 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Beside the Troubled Waters is a straightforward, compelling narrative that makes a powerful impact.” ( The Huntsville Times)

“This is an important book. It deserves a wide and intelligent readership.” (Gregory Michael Dorr, author of Segregation's Science: Eugenics and Society in Virginia)

A compelling memoir

Dr. Hereford's personal story brings history alive, with detailed, poignant accounts of life as an African American prior to the civil rights movement. You will be inspired by his hard work, his ambition despite hardship, and his sacrificial care for many poor people. He also takes the reader behind the scenes of civil rights activism in his home town. As a native of Huntsville, Alabama myself, many of the names and places in this book were familiar, but Dr. Hereford's memoir would be a compelling read for anyone who wants to learn more about the not-so-distant past.

Excellent story!!!

This was a story that needed to be told. All young people in the medical profession must read this story. Thank you Dr Sonnie Hereford for your contribution to the struggle and medicine.

Everyone should listen

Well written and well read. An extraordinary story about an exceptional man rising from the segregated south only to be brought down in our supposedly post-segregation country. A rare window into life in the south.

Unbreakable

This recording encompasses the story of a true HERO. It's worth every penny! Listen and go on heroic hourney: feel the pain, but remain unbroken in the end. This recording has it all and if you've thought about dealing with adversity, take the time out and listen to this book because you'll be glad you did. Thanks for sharing your story, Doc!