GEORGIA B. WILLIAMS NURSING HOME

The rehabilitation of the Georgia B. Williams Nursing Home is preserving one of the nation's most significant historic resources associated with African American maternal healthcare. Between 1941 and 1971, third-generation midwife Beatrice "Miss Bea" Borders delivered more than 6,000 babies from this Black-owned nursing home in Camilla, Georgia, providing essential care to families during segregation. Since the founding of Georgia B. Williams Nursing Home, Inc., the organization has worked to preserve this extraordinary legacy through the building's National Register of Historic Places listing, a comprehensive Preservation Plan, oral history collection, digitization of Miss Bea's birth records, and the development of architectural and engineering plans that will guide its transformation into the Museum of the Southern African American Midwife.

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The project has earned national recognition through listings such as the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation's Places in Peril and the National Trust for Historic Preservation's America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, while also securing multiple preservation grants that have advanced planning and rehabilitation. Today, construction documents are complete, regulatory reviews have been finalized, and the project is entering its final phase of rehabilitation. Once complete, the restored building will serve as a museum, educational center, and community gathering place that honors the legacy of Beatrice Borders and the generations of African American midwives whose knowledge, compassion, and service profoundly shaped maternal and infant health throughout the South.