George Simkins Jr. facts for kids

Quick facts for kids George Simkins Jr.
Born	August 23, 1924
Occupation	Dentist, Civil Rights Activist

Dr. George Simkins Jr. (August 23, 1924 – November 21, 2001) was a dentist and an important leader in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was also a brave civil rights activist. In the 1950s, he won several big lawsuits that helped end segregation. For 25 years, he was the president of the Greensboro branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Starting in 1955, Dr. Simkins used the law and local votes to make sure everyone could use public places. This included parks, schools, and hospitals. He also fought against unfair treatment in housing and city services.

Early Life and Education

George Simkins Jr. was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, on August 23, 1924. His father, George C. Simkins Sr., was also a dentist and a community leader. His mother, Guyrene Tyson Simkins, was an educator.

George Jr. loved sports and was a great athlete. He was even ranked nationally in badminton! He went to Dudley High School in Greensboro. Later, he studied at Herzl Junior College and then Talladega College. He earned his dentistry degree from Meharry School of Dentistry in 1948. After that, he completed an internship at Jersey City Medical Center.

When he returned to Greensboro, Dr. Simkins opened his own dentistry office. He also joined the Guilford County Health Department. He was the first African American to work there.

Fighting for Fair Golf Courses

In 1940, the city of Greensboro built a golf course using public money. The federal government paid for most of it. But when the course opened in 1949, it was only for white people.

In 1955, Dr. Simkins decided to challenge this unfair rule. On December 7, 1955, he and five other men went to the Gillespie Park golf course. They offered to pay the green fees. However, they were told the course was private and only for members. Dr. Simkins placed the seventy-five cents fee on the counter. He insisted on his right to play and went onto the course. The manager told them to leave, but they refused and kept playing.

That night, Dr. Simkins and the five other players were arrested. They were charged with trespassing. In February 1956, all six men were found guilty and fined. They appealed the decision, and in June 1957, the North Carolina State Supreme Court finally dropped the trespassing charges.

The fight continued in court. A judge named Johnson J. Hayes ruled that the golf course was not truly private. He said it was wrong to deny people access just because of their race. Judge Hayes wanted the golf course to be open to everyone. He wrote, "Everybody knows this was done because the plaintiffs were Negroes and for no other reason."

The case, Wolfe v. North Carolina, went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1958, the Supreme Court ruled against the six golfers. Chief Justice Earl Warren and other justices were confused why important evidence was left out of the case record. Thurgood Marshall, a famous NAACP lawyer, even joked that Simkins' lawyers should be in jail for how they handled the case!

However, Chief Justice Warren wrote a strong statement disagreeing with the ruling. This led North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges to reduce the jail sentences for the five surviving players.

After the golf course clubhouse burned down, the city council decided to stop running the recreation business. It took seven years, a new city council, and a lot of community effort to get Gillespie reopened. On December 7, 1962, the golf course welcomed golfers again. Dr. Simkins was the first person to tee off.

Simkins et al. v. Greensboro

In October 1956, Dr. Simkins filed another lawsuit against the City of Greensboro. This time, it was for racial discrimination in running a public golf course only for white people. This case was called Simkins et al. v. Greensboro. Dr. Simkins led the lawsuit as the head of the local NAACP. Nine other people joined him, including the five golfers from December 1955.

On March 20, 1957, the court ruled in favor of Simkins. The court said that Greensboro could not avoid its duty to provide equal access to all citizens. The city appealed, but a higher court agreed with the first ruling. It ordered the city to stop running the golf course in a segregated way.

Simkins v. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital

In the early 1960s, there were very few hospitals for African Americans in North Carolina. Most were crowded and did not offer good healthcare. Many hospitals in the South did not accept Black patients equally. They also did not allow Black doctors to work or train there.

Even though most hospitals were private, some received money from the state and federal governments. This meant they might be involved in government discrimination. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro had received federal money.

Dr. Simkins found out that his patient was denied care at Cone Hospital. He realized that since the hospital received government funds, it couldn't be completely private. So, he and other people filed a lawsuit. They argued that the hospitals' rules for separate-but-equal services were against the U.S. Constitution.

The NAACP helped the plaintiffs. They hired a lawyer named Conrad Pearson. On December 5, 1962, a federal court first ruled in favor of the hospitals. The judge said they were private hospitals and could choose whom to serve.

However, the plaintiffs appealed to a higher court. In November 1963, this court overturned the first decision. The appeals court found that the hospitals had violated the Constitution. This was because they were connected to the government through the funds they received. The court also said that even if Black health facilities were separate, they were definitely not equal.

The hospitals then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy supported Simkins and the other plaintiffs. But the Supreme Court decided not to hear the case.

The Simkins v. Cone (1963) decision was very important. It was the first time federal courts said that private groups could not discriminate based on race if they received government money. The year after this decision, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law officially stopped private discrimination in public places. Many people called the Simkins case the "Brown v. Board of Education" for hospitals.

Wachovia Bank Protest

In the spring of 1964, Dr. Simkins helped start a movement in Greensboro. The goal was to help African Americans get jobs based on their skills. They wanted fair chances for training and employment.

He organized protests against Wachovia Bank. Wachovia claimed it hired people based on their abilities. However, it had no African Americans working in its Greensboro offices. The protests began on April 28, 1964. They ended just two days later! Wachovia Bank hired two African-American tellers. Dr. Simkins wrote to Wachovia, noting that they were suddenly able to "find the qualified Negros it had been unable to locate during the last two years."