History

Lincoln Community Health Center is a preventive and primary health care facility serving the Durham community since September 1971. The health center was founded by Dr. Charles DeWitt Watts, the first African American board certified surgeon in North Carolina. Dr. Watts was chief of surgery at Lincoln Hospital. However, with Lincoln Hospital’s closing in the mid-1970’s, Dr. Watts recognized the patients he treated would still need a facility for their primary health care needs. The Lincoln Community Health Center emerged from Dr. Watts and others’ desire to treat a low income, underserved population in the community where they lived and worked. Dr. Watts died in 2004 at age 86.

Today, Lincoln Community Health Center is accredited and certified as a Primary Care Medical Home by The Joint Commission and offers a wide range of services including: pediatrics, adolescent health, adult medicine, family medicine, dental and behavioral health.