Dr. James F. Shober was an African-American doctor and the first Black Physician In North Carolina. From Waughtown, N. C. his father was the white Francis Edwin Shober. He was a co-founder of the first Sunday school in North Carolina and a law graduate of the University of North Carolina. His mother was a slave named Betsy Ann. Betsy Ann died in 1859 when James Francis was between the age of 6 and 7 and he was probably sent back to the Waugh Plantation in Waughtown where his grandmother and his mother's other siblings were living. He graduated second in his class from Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania in 1875 with an A. B. Degree. He then went to Howard University's School of Medicine where he was one of 48 graduates in the class of 1878 and the only one from North Carolina. While a number of other Blacks may have been licensed doctors sometime after Emancipation, Shober was the first Black doctor to graduate from a regular medical school in North Carolina and was thus the first "official" Black doctor in North Carolina. His wife Anna Marie Taylor Shober was an educator and taught at the Peabody School in Wilmington and his daughters pursued a number of prominent professions and positions. Dr. Shober died at the age of 36.
Dr. James F. Shober was an African-American doctor and the first Black Physician In North Carolina. From Waughtown, N. C. his father was the white Francis Edwin Shober. He was a co-founder of the first Sunday school in North Carolina and a law graduate of the University of North Carolina. His mother was a slave named Betsy Ann. Betsy Ann died in 1859 when James Francis was between the age of 6 and 7 and he was probably sent back to the Waugh Plantation in Waughtown where his grandmother and his mother's other siblings were living. He graduated second in his class from Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania in 1875 with an A. B. Degree. He then went to Howard University's School of Medicine where he was one of 48 graduates in the class of 1878 and the only one from North Carolina. While a number of other Blacks may have been licensed doctors sometime after Emancipation, Shober was the first Black doctor to graduate from a regular medical school in North Carolina and was thus the first "official" Black doctor in North Carolina. His wife Anna Marie Taylor Shober was an educator and taught at the Peabody School in Wilmington and his daughters pursued a number of prominent professions and positions. Dr. Shober died at the age of 36.
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