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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1975)
...i 12-(Sec. I) Statesman, Salem,' Ore., Siin.i Aprfl zl, TSt' Florida Town Tries to Forget Race ,1 if 1' L v 11 1 By HENDREC CBANDLEB MADISON. Fl., April 10 IA Like child who has beea burned I by a forbidden firecracker that I exploded unexpectedly. Madison tel reluctant to talk about the racial . controversy which rocked it a fowl ., months pack. . : . "It i water ever the dam." saidl a prominent Madison attorney. "A far at moat people here are I concerned the-matter forgot ten." Dr. Deborah Coerins, the at tractive former tricounty health officer who saw a ctomt break I over her bead when the had a I buii neat luncheon with a Negro I nurse, is as averse as most people I here to rehash the events. . The Sz-yearold Dr. Coggint said she felt no bitterness over I ? beins fired from her $S75-a-month I - health officer job, and hoped there was no resentment toward I - her. , ;, Opened Private Practice Last Jan. 1, she set up offices I with her doctor husband in pri-l vste practice here. And she has! beea a busy helping to attend to the physical aihnenta of the town she has had little time to dweO a the past. She and her husband Dr. Wilmer J. Coggins constitute ' has of the force of four physicians servinj this county seat town of "1 l.wo persons. 4 ' "I'm very happy in my work, the said, fingering .a ttelhoscope v during an interview between ap- " potntments. "you don't do the good for a , large number of people as in pub lic health work, out i Believe that here I no more IndividuaJ good, and yon get more of the I personal touch through getting to I j know the whole family. ; Tesb!, Cowards I It was a composed Dr. Coggins ' - to her trim white uniform, unlike I tha fired-up young physrciaa who! " 1 stormed up to the Madison county I Commission last October. She I called them "fools" and . ardi" for refusing to teS whether she was being fired bl ef the hmcneoa with the I Metre. At the time ef her dismissal the blonde Dr. Coggina was Flor-I " Ida's only woman health officer. I She said the bad planned to gel Into private practice when the I need foir a tricounty health officer I : developed last May and the aud-l dently found herself thrust that I position. . "I had m particular ambitions I k the public bedltk fjeld af I though I certainly enjoyed the I work and see tb groat need," she I roaid. I "My husband needed me In his I practice aa I probably would have I quit m nine, anynow.- e'lMe Dr. Coggint repeated thab the bad no idea of breaching South- era social custom when she ar ranged the luncheon conference with a Negro midwue consultant for the State Board of Health in the private dining room of a res taurant here last Aug. n. "But I dont believe I would do I again la the tame manner," out f the great uproar wtucn ivu mcusea nauonai aueniio ner, i Dr. Coggias says she can per tvall haps see some lasting gooo. Bees Draw No Cesar Line 1 believe it may nave stirred some respect for the individual whether ha be white or colored. she said. "Let's call it human dignity. In the ipedical profession we draw no color distinction when we treat human ailments.' There is a feeling here that a ehaia of events blew the matter sut of focus and magnified the ' situation. A member of the Mad ison County Commission which dismissed her. Graver Cone of Greeneville. said: "I consider Dr. Coggint a very fine woman and aa able doctor. 1 No member of the commission has anything but the highest respect lor ber. Every mm Wants to Forget Z Cone said be believed the tlUia- ' Hon could have beeiv smoothed over "if a couple of fellows had used their beads at the very start. The thing kept getting bigger and bigger and pretty soon it was out of control. T. C. Merchant Jr., editor ef i the weekly Madison Enterprise Recorder, who defended Dr. Cog '. gins, said be had experienced a "negligible amount" of economic retaliation as a result, but that he like everyone else wanted to forget the thing. Merchant told the Madison County Commission the day of ber firing Dr. Coggins had been "sub- 1 jected to the most vicious assort r ment of lies, misrepresentations and slander that I have had oc casion to witness in this commu nity" - f Race RelaUoM Called Gad , Merchant said that on the whole ' racial relations in Madison were good, and there had been no in- . indents growing out ef the differ ences which split the town sharp ly. Now, be said, "the wounds ' are about healed.' Dr. Coggins' job as health ofQ cer was taken over several weeks ago by Dr. H. H. Ring, a quiet- spoken man with. a north rlortda tl bsckground who it being Kept busy rebuilding the health orgsn- mm , XkaftwimM nf fur WArlr ft! til nf. 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