The first African-American dentist in Alabama was born right in Marion. Thomas A. Curtis’s parents were formerly enslaved people from Perry County. After the Civil War, his father, Alexander H. Curtis, was a state Senator who also helped to raise money for what was to become Lincoln Normal School.
Curtis left a teaching career to enroll in dental college, graduating in 1889 with honors to become Alabama’s first African-American dentist. He later moved to St. Louis, where he practiced for nearly half a century and was an early community leader and civil rights advocate. He was among the founders of the St. Louis Argus, a newspaper covering that city’s African-American community. He also helped organize the Urban League and the St. Louis chapter of the NAACP.
