Over the last year, we have collaborated with the community by collecting the stories of those who were affiliated with the hospital. One main focus of our oral histories has been the staff, patients, and people who funded and built the hospital. Many of those who we interviewed were diagnosed with polio at a young age and remember the trauma of being separated from their families.

 

Oral histories also deepen our understanding of civil rights in Greensboro. This project highlights the contributions of the female students from Bennett College, like Sandra Sharpe, who was detained at the polio hospital in 1963 for nearly three weeks along with hundreds of others.