Title: Diary of Andrew Best

Identifier: LL02.13.01.02.04   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/86515)

Description: This diary contains Best's firsthand accounts of his experience in World War II. Dr. Andrew Arthur Best was born on 1916 November 26 in Lenoir County, North Carolina to Lewis W. and Cassie (Dawson) Best. In 1936, he graduated from Kinston's Adkin High School and began his college career at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (North Carolina A&T) in 1940. While at North Carolina A&T, he joined the Advanced ROTC and planned to join the U.S. Army after graduation. Instead, he was drafted into the U.S. Army on April 30, 1943 and served in the Fifth Army during World War II. In 1946, he returned to North Carolina A&T and graduated with a degree in agriculture in 1947. He completed his Doctor of Medicine at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee in 1951. Dr. Best established his medical practice in Greenville, NC in 1954. Dr. Best served the humanitarian needs of the area, encouraging African American students to enroll at East Carolina University and bringing highly qualified African American faculty and staff to the University. Dr. Best helped orchestrate the desegregation of East Carolina College, the Greenville business community, and Pitt County Memorial Hospital (previously Vidant Medical Center, now ECU Health).