Dr. Paris Bransford
Dr. Paris Bransford, c. 1963.(Courtesy of Meharry Medical College)
Dr. Paris Bransford was born in 1930 in Alabama. Growing up in the segregated South, he attended a two-room school house reserved for “colored” children. Inspired by the black doctor in his community, a man who everyone knew and loved, Paris Bransford chose medicine for his own career. After high school, however, he first joined the U.S. Air Force to complete his military service. Dr. Bransford recalls the impact of President Truman’s order ending segregation in the armed forces: “I was at Travis Air Force base at that time and they had just integrated our company. And so consequently, you found out that people are people. You bleed. You cry. You want to be loved like everybody else.”
Following his honorable discharge, Dr. Bransford attended Tennessee State in Nashville, graduating in 1956. With a young family and lacking adequate funds for medical school, Dr. Bransford first worked for the federal government on the Jupiter missile program. A few years later, he began his studies at Meharry Medical College.
From an early age, Dr. Bransford wanted to be a surgeon. Following his 1963 graduation from Meharry, he completed a surgical residency in North Carolina. After practicing for several years in Tennessee, physicians in Houston lured him to the Texas city. Dr. Bransford opened a practice on Almeda Street. A white physician later asked him to move his practice to Pasadena, Texas, just outside Houston. Dr. Bransford built a large practice there with patients of all races and started his own clinic on Strawberry Street. He retired in 2003.
An active member of the Houston Medical Forum, Dr. Bransford held many offices with the organization, including the presidency. He also worked with the Houston Independent School District to give medical education and services to young students. Dr. Bransford takes pride in his work for the community and its youngest members. His wife, Gladys, received her law degree from the University of Houston and is now a judge in Harris County; Texas.
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