Tuskegee resident Elise Tolbert hasn’t had a hospital in her city in her lifetime. Macon county, where her family has lived for generations and where four out of five residents are Black, once had two hospitals, but both were closed by the late 1980s.
That has forced locals to travel a half hour or more to other larger towns to get treatment – a long trip during a medical emergency, especially since calling for an ambulance can lead to a long wait. Residents often have to drive themselves, or find someone to take them if they don’t own a car – which is common in a town where 29% of residents live in poverty.
