His Life · A biography in eight chapters
Once a dentist, always a dentist
Gordon Alexander Rodgers Jr. was born in Anniston, Alabama, on October 28, 1915, the son of a Meharry-trained doctor and a Talladega-trained teacher. He served as an Army dentist with the Buffalo Soldiers in Italy, then came home and practiced dentistry in Anniston for half a century.
He also used the standing that practice gave him. He led the Anniston branch of the NAACP from the late 1940s and then its Alabama State Conference, led what he remembered as the first statewide voter-registration drive, and was in office when Alabama outlawed the organization. He ran for office in Klan-era Anniston and lost, then ran again and became the first Black member of the Anniston City Council.
This account is drawn from his own words, recorded in 1995 and 2002, and from newspapers, archives and his family's memory. Wherever the sources disagree or a fact is not yet confirmed, the text says so. The notes at the end of each chapter show where each fact comes from.
Chapters
- Chapter 1 · 1858 – 1920sRootsA doctor’s son on Cooper Avenue. His father came from Wetumpka by way of Meharry, his mother trained as a teacher, and their house took in the NAACP mail that others were afraid to receive.
- Chapter 2 · 1920s – 1937SchoolingAnniston built its Black public school to stop at sixth grade. Its principals added one grade at a time, and his mother sent her children to Talladega to go further.
- Chapter 3 · 1937 – c. 1946Meharry & WarA dental degree from his father’s alma mater, then Pearl Harbor. He served in a segregated army, first with the tank destroyers in Texas and then as a dentist with the 92nd “Buffalo Soldier” Division in Italy.
- Chapter 4 · c. 1947 – 2000sDoc Rodgers the Dentist“Once a dentist, always a dentist.” He practiced dentistry in Anniston for more than half a century, married Agnes Durrah, raised four children, and later handed the practice to his daughter.
- Chapter 5 · c. 1948 – 1956The NAACP YearsHe led the Anniston branch and then the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, led what he remembered as the first statewide voter-registration drive, and was in office when the state outlawed the organization.
- Chapter 6 · c. 1962 – 1963Running for OfficeIn Klan-era Anniston, a year after the Freedom Riders’ bus was burned outside town, he ran for public safety commissioner and lost. His call for a biracial committee outlasted the campaign.
- Chapter 7 · 1968 – 1970sFirst on the CouncilIn 1968 he became the first Black person elected to the Anniston City Council. He served two terms, and in 1971 he wrote the council's tribute to the minister who had chaired the Human Relations Council.
- Chapter 8 · 1980s – 2007Later Years & LegacyAstronomy, photography and a garden. Two oral histories recorded in his own voice, and a family legacy of healing that runs from Wetumpka to Kansas City to a Meharry scholarship.