His Life · Chapter 4 of 8 · c. 1947 – 2000s
Doc 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.
Shaun Simmons, a Jacksonville State student, asked him in 1995 what his occupation was, “or, what was your occupation?” He was seventy-nine and would not accept the past tense.
“Well, I — once a dentist, always a dentist. I came back from World War Two and opened a dental office here in Anniston, Alabama, in nineteen forty-seven or forty-eight, one or the other. And I’ve been here since.”
He had come home to the sixteen-hundred block of Cooper Avenue, the neighborhood where he grew up. The town he came back to was changing in small ways.
“There seemed to have been more people around after the war, and they were earning a living — not top-notch, but they were surviving, and there was some hope.”
A professional in a segregated town
In mid-century Anniston, a Black dentist held an unusual position. Like other Black professionals of his time, he answered to his own patients and did not depend on a white employer who could fire him for joining the wrong organization. That independence mattered. He had grown up watching his father’s neighbors hide their NAACP membership for fear of losing their jobs. A man in his position could take risks others could not.
To most of the town he was “Doc.” The quieter side of his character came through to those who knew him well. After his death, The Birmingham News, summarizing the Rev. Randy B. Kelley, a former NAACP state board member, wrote that his “quiet demeanor masked a pioneering figure who was both an intellectual and an activist.” Kelley also said:
“He succeeded in politics, civil rights and business. He gave less attention to his business than to people.”
The Rev. Randy B. Kelley, quoted in The Birmingham News, Dec. 27, 2007
Agnes
He met Agnes Durrah, of New Jersey, on a blind date at an NAACP function in Atlanta. The story comes from a later newspaper profile of their daughter.1 The family tells a story about their honeymoon in Cuba. From their hotel balcony they watched a guerrilla skirmish that the family remembered as led by Fidel Castro, and the fighting stopped travel for several days, so the honeymoon ran long.2 The exact date of the wedding is still an open question. One published account gives February 29, 1952, but Castro’s armed uprising did not begin until the summer of 1953. The family is still working to reconcile the two.
Agnes Rodgers died in 1993.3 Together they raised four children: Gordon Alexander “Flash” Rodgers III, Cheryl Rodgers, Beverly Rodgers and Michelle Rodgers Sands. In 1995, asked whether his family had taken part in the marches, he first said his daughters and son had, then corrected himself: they had been too young. “So I’d say no to that.”4 The family home was at 1001 Claxton Street in Anniston. The 1995 interview was recorded there.
The next dentist
One of the four followed him into the profession. Dr. Beverly Rodgers earned her dental degree at Meharry in 1987, making her the third generation of the family to graduate from that school. She later practiced on Cooper Avenue next to her grandparents’ old house.5 Eventually she took over her father’s practice. By 2002 he could say:
“I have a daughter who’s a dentist, licensed by the state of Alabama, who runs my office now.”
His obituary noted that he “began a dental practice that he eventually shared with his daughter.”6 Half a century of patients passed through his practice. Their stories are some of what this site most hopes to collect. If you were one of them, please share a memory.
Footnotes
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“Dr. Beverly Rodgers,” The Anniston Star (profile, undated). The same article is the source of the February 29, 1952 wedding date. ↩
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According to his obituary, the story was often retold by relatives: William Thornton, “Gordon Rodgers, Anniston dentist, civil rights leader, activist dies at 92,” The Birmingham News, Dec. 27, 2007. The obituary gives his wife’s name as Agnes Elizabeth. ↩
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Frederick Burger’s interview notes, April 17, 2002 (Burger research file, p. 1). ↩
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Alabama Oral History No. 93 (1995), Tape 2, 10:35. Children’s names are confirmed by the family. ↩
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“Dr. Beverly Rodgers,” The Anniston Star. Family confirmed. ↩
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The Birmingham News, Dec. 27, 2007. ↩