Dr. Joseph Hobbs to present history lecture on desegregation of Medical College of Georgia

Dr. Joseph Hobbs will offer a virtual presentation, “The Desegregation of the Medical College of Georgia,” at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 9, as part of the Augusta Museum of History’s Brown Bag History Lecture Series. Hobbs’ presentation will highlight medical pioneers in relation to the forces changing Augusta and the surrounding area during the “Era of Change: 1950-1980,” the theme of this year’s lecture series.

Hobbs, a lifelong Augustan and a product of the Richmond County Public School System, was in the first graduating class of T.W. Josey High School. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Mercer University in 1970 and his Doctor of Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia in 1974, among the college’s third group of African American graduates.

He completed a family medicine residency at MCG, including a year as one of the first two African American chief residents, before joining the family medicine faculty in 1977 as one of the first three African American full-time MCG School of Medicine faculty members. Hobbs served as director of the Department of Family Medicine’s residency program, inpatient service, student education program and clinical clerkship, as well as vice chair of academic affairs. He was also the first associate dean for primary care, before he assumed, as the first African American department chair, the role of chair of the Department of Family Medicine.

Since 2013, he has served as the voice of Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “Medical Minute,” which airs weekly on Saturday and Sunday. He is married to his wife of 40 years, and they have three adult children, Reginald, Tiffany and April.

The pre-recorded presentation will be available via the Augusta Museum of History’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.