Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Dr. Edna L. Griffin (1905-1992) moved to Pasadena in 1935 and became Pasadena’s first black female physician. Her original practice was located at 891 N. Fair Oaks Ave. Dr. Griffin was the first black woman president of Pasadena’s NAACP chapter (1938-47) and led the effort to desegregate the Brookside Plunge swimming pool (later demolished and rebuilt as the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center). In the 1940s, with the assistance of Pasadena’s Interracial Committee, Dr. Griffin and Pasadena’s NAACP chapter succeeded in getting the first black policemen, firemen, YMCA secretary, YWCA clerk, and census enumerator employed. You can see images of Griffin’s office today at 881, 891 and 893 pictured here.
Robert S Whittaker was born in Carrollton, Kentucky. He was educated within the state and probably graduated from Simmons college before earning his medical degree at Louisville’s National Medical College. There after he spent three months at Howard University before migrating to Kansas, where most of his family was currently residing. In 1922 he moved to Pasadena and in 1923 he relocated to Los Angeles, where he founded Dunbar Hospital. The hospital served the African American community in Los Angeles for 14 years before the death of one of its managers, Mr. Diggs. After this event, the hospital closed, and Dr. Whitaker retired to private practice. His office was on Fair Oaks. Hs was active in a Greek fraternity, in addition to the National Medical Association and NAACP.