Charles Henry Carroll was born May 10, 1877, in Tazewell, Virginia, to Charles H. and Bettee Carroll, who was already widowed by 1880. He attended Virginia State College and went on to earn a medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1906, where he was among the medical school’s first Black graduates.
A pioneering African American physician, he led the movement in the 1920s to establish a hospital in Pittsburgh for African Americans. Under his leadership as a member of the board of directors of the Urban League of Pittsburgh (ULP), the organization prioritized addressing health issues, sponsoring a series of community events to educate Black families about preventive care, providing physical examinations for adults, and screenings for infants.
As a physician and activist in the Negro Hospital Movement, Dr. Carroll headed the committee proposing a new, 150-bed hospital for the training of Black doctors and nurses in Pittsburgh and a clinic, with Dr. Carroll leading a team of Black doctors to address community health concerns locally. He urged the local city council to create a hospital for the training of Black nurses and physicians. The Pittsburgh City Council ultimately rejected the proposals. He was one of nine co-founders of the Pennsylvania Institute of Negro Health. From Pittsburgh, he also lent administrative support to Livingstone Memorial Hospital in Salisbury, North Carolina. At the same time, his wife, Annabelle Carroll, served as treasurer and then president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Livingstone Memorial Hospital Association.
Dr. Carroll also led the combined forces of the Pittsburgh branch of the Urban League and the YMCA, where he also served as a member of the board of directors in conducting their National Health Week program, annually during the month of May.
He served as president of the Northside and Suburban Civic League, president of the board of directors of the Ella Grayson Home for Colored Working Girls, member of the Pennsylvania State Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Association, president of Medico-Odon-Pharmacuti Association, member of Alpha Phi Alpha, Beta Kappa Chi and Sigma Pi Phi fraternities, and was active in the NAACP, the YMCA, the Pennsylvania State Medical Association and the Allegheny County Medical Association.
He was elected first president of the Alpha Omicron Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity in 1927, and in 1923, he and University of Pittsburgh Medical School classmates Allen G. Gantt, Harrison Brown and James C.G. Fowler founded the Pittsburgh chapter of the prestigious Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Rho Boulé. He would subsequently serve as Sire Archon (president) of Rho and as Grand Sire Archon of Sigma Pi Phi.
Dr. Charles H. Carroll practiced medicine in Pittsburgh from 1906 until his death, September 5, 1948, at Allegheny General Hospital, where he was a staff member. He was survived at the time by his wife, Annabelle Carroll of Canada, a daughter, Odessa Maude Price Sheppard, and granddaughter, Carroll Sheppard.
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