In 2016, Charles Barkley marked Black History Month with a daily spotlight on local African-American heroes. Many of them didn’t make it into the history books or even the newspapers of their time. But their stories are inspiring and worth knowing. Here’s another look.
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Walter P. Lomax Jr.
Physician
Walter P. Lomax Jr.
Physician
(July 31, 1932 - October 10, 2013)
Walter Lomax opened his first South Philly medical practice in 1958, where 10 years later he treated Martin Luther King Jr. for a respiratory infection.
He expanded to six health clinics, with over 20 doctors, and Correctional Healthcare Solutions, which sent doctors to 70 prisons in 10 states.
He also founded Lomax Companies, an umbrella for several businesses, including radio station WURD.
He contributed to various African and African-American causes, both personally and through his Lomax Family Foundation.
In 1994, he bought the plantation in Virginia where his great-grandmother and hundreds of others had been enslaved—what Michael Coard in Philly Mag rightly described as an “expression of real black power.”
EDUCATION
- La Salle University and Hahnemann University Hospital
- Lincoln University, Hon. ScD
ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
- Physician
- Formed Lomax Companies, an umbrella group that includes Lomax Real Estate Partners, Prime Image and MyArtistDNA, and 900AM-WURD
- Founded the Lomax Family Foundation
- Bought the Virginia plantation where his great-grandmother was a slave
FINAL WORD:
Lomax “was a trailblazer who showed many in the African-American business community what was possible with a bit of ingenuity and a lot of hard work,” City Council President Darrell Clarke said after Lomax died. “Dr. Lomax did not just show us how to succeed; he demonstrated the importance of giving back to the community.”
Home page image: North Philadelphia Heroes © City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program / Cliff Eubanks. Photo by Kevin Slattery