Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: In 1905, Dr. Richard Samuel Hughes II graduated from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, the second oldest African American medical school in the country. After moving to Ocala in 1908, Dr. Hughes helped form the American National Thrift Association (ANTA), a benevolent organization that offered prepaid health care plans, pensions, and other services to African Americans unable to get conventional health insurance. By 1925, ANTA converted the Savoy Hotel into a 50-bed hospital operated by Dr. Hughes and his nursing staff. White physicians from Munroe Memorial Hospital, including E.G. Peeks Sr., Thomas Wallis, and H.F. Watt, assisted Dr. Hughes by volunteering time. The ANTA hospital served the medical needs of African American communities in Marion County and surrounding areas, from Chiefland to Fort Myers. Dr. Hughes, along with other prominent physicians and surgeons from Meharry Medical College, conducted annual, week-long surgical clinics that provided African American patients with medical treatment and surgical procedures. Dr. Hughes died in 1943 and the hospital closed soon after, but his contributions are regarded as a significant advancement in healthcare access for Ocala’s black community.