Spanning the dates 1917 to 2004, the Charles DeWitt Watts Papers contain files related to Watts's education, family, community activities, centered in Durham, N.C., and his career as a surgeon, administrator, and trustee on several boards. The bulk of the material dates from 1970 to 2000. The collection primarily consists of correspondence, reports, notes, speeches, photographs, and print materials, and is organized into the following series: Community Relations, Personal Files, Photographic Materials, and Professional Files. Material containing personally-identifiable medical information in the Medical Records Series has been separated from the other professional files and is currently closed to use.
Largest in the collection is the Professional Files Series, which primarily contains administrative documents related to Watts's career as a doctor, surgeon, and medical administrator for various private practices, hospitals, boards, and professional societies. Of particular note are files related to Watt's mentor, Dr. Charles Drew, the history of Lincoln Hospital, and the establishment of the Lincoln Community Health Center in 1970. The folders in the Medical Records Series have been separated and are currently closed to use. The Community Relations Series concerns Watts's professional life outside of medicine, containing files related to his membership in churches and fraternal organizations, non-medically-related boards on which he served, his work with Durham, N.C. organizations, his interest in race relations, and honors awarded him. Also included are the papers of Constance Watts (wife), Lyda Merrick (mother-in-law), and Margaret Smith (a nurse in his office). Of special interest is a scrapbook about the Negro Braille Magazine (now the Merrick-Washington Magazine for the Blind), founded by Mrs. Merrick.
Some professional correspondence is also intermixed in the Personal Files Series, which contains papers related to Watts's family, friends, finances, education, and alumni activities. Of particular note is a transcript of Watts's oral history. Containing both professional and personal content, the Photographic Materials Series contains photographs, slides, and negatives. The bulk consists of portraits and snapshots of the Watts family. Of particular note are early photographs of Lincoln Hospital nursing students and staff members.
Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia on September 21, 1917, Charles DeWitt Watts was a pioneering African American surgeon. Watts graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in mathematics in 1938. He received his medical degree in 1943 from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., where he was mentored by Dr. Charles R. Drew, a pioneer of blood collection and plasma processing. Watts completed his surgical training at Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C. from 1943-1948 and worked at Howard as instructor of surgery and director of the cancer clinic from 1948-1949.
In 1945, Watts married Constance Merrick Watts, the granddaughter of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company founders, John Merrick and Dr. A.M. Moore. They had four children. In 1950, the Watts family returned to Constance's hometown of Durham, North Carolina, where Watts set up a private practice and joined the staff of Lincoln Hospital. He was the first African American to be certified by a surgical specialty board in North Carolina. During his medical career, he served as Director of Student Health at North Carolina Central University (1952-1960), Chief of Surgery at Lincoln Hospital (1965-1976), Attending Surgeon at Watts Hospital (1968-1976) and Durham County General Hospital (1976-1987), and Adjunct Clinical Professor of Surgery at Duke. He retired from private practice in 1988 but continued to consult and teach.
Watts worked for civil rights and quality medical care for Durham residents. He was one of the founders and served on the Board of Durham County General Hospital (now Durham Regional Hospital), the first desegregated hospital in Durham. When Lincoln Hospital closed its doors after the opening of Durham Regional, Watts was instrumental in turning it into the Lincoln Community Health Center, an outpatient clinic dedicated to serving Durham residents regardless of income; he served as its first Medical Director for a year until Dr. Evie Schmidt was hired as its permanent head. Watts also served as Vice-President and Medical Director of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company from 1960-1988. From 1978-1993, he was a trustee of Howard University, where he oversaw the university's medical enterprise and engineered the Board's governance reform. In 2002, Duke University Medical School created the Charles Watts Travel Award to help fund faculty and student travel to study culturally specific issues. Charles DeWitt Watts passed away in Durham on July 12, 2004 at the age of 86.
