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Alma Jean Carney-Thomas, a local historian, civil rights activist, and entrepreneur who brought the first health clinic to Haywood County, stands for a portrait at the Dunbar Carver Museum in Brownsville, Tenn., on July 10, 2024. As a kid, she witnessed her grandmother lying in a hospital bed in the basement of the Haywood County Memorial Hospital, built in 1930 during Jim Crow. “I just remember looking around, and it didn’t look like nothin’ that I had seen in a book about a hospital,” she recalls. (Ariel J. Cobbert/Capital B, CatchLight Local via AP)

Alma Jean Carney-Thomas, a local historian, civil rights activist, and entrepreneur who brought the first health clinic to Haywood County, stands for a portrait at the Dunbar Carver Museum in Brownsville, Tenn., on July 10, 2024. As a kid, she witnessed her grandmother lying in a hospital bed in the basement of the Haywood County Memorial Hospital, built in 1930 during Jim Crow. “I just remember looking around, and it didn’t look like nothin’ that I had seen in a book about a hospital,” she recalls. (Ariel J. Cobbert/Capital B, CatchLight Local via AP)

Alexis Ratliff, 29, sits with her 11-month-old daughter, Eleah Witcher, and son, Ezekiel, 5, at home in Rocky Mount, N.C., on July 9, 2024. With no hospital in Rocky Mount, Ratliff had a doula to help with the birth of Eleah. (Natalee Waters/Cardinal News, CatchLight Local via AP)

Alexis Ratliff, 29, sits with her 11-month-old daughter, Eleah Witcher, and son, Ezekiel, 5, at home in Rocky Mount, N.C., on July 9, 2024. With no hospital in Rocky Mount, Ratliff had a doula to help with the birth of Eleah. (Natalee Waters/Cardinal News, CatchLight Local via AP)

Tamika Tali, a doula with Birth in Color, sits for a portrait at home in North Carolina on July 15, 2024. The state of Virginia, where Tali works, started offering Medicaid coverage for doula services in 2022. (Natalee Waters/Cardinal News, CatchLight Local via AP)

Tamika Tali, a doula with Birth in Color, sits for a portrait at home in North Carolina on July 15, 2024. The state of Virginia, where Tali works, started offering Medicaid coverage for doula services in 2022. (Natalee Waters/Cardinal News, CatchLight Local via AP)

Claudia Lenhart, 25, a second-year Campbell University medical student, helps set up a mobile health clinic organized by NC FIELD outside María, Reina de las Américas Catholic Church in Mt. Olive, N.C., on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. The mobile clinic is adapted to treat rural patients, many of them agricultural workers, who often work during normal office hours, lack health insurance and face language barriers. (Angelica Edwards/Enlace Latino NC, CatchLight Local via AP)

Claudia Lenhart, 25, a second-year Campbell University medical student, helps set up a mobile health clinic organized by NC FIELD outside María, Reina de las Américas Catholic Church in Mt. Olive, N.C., on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. The mobile clinic is adapted to treat rural patients, many of them agricultural workers, who often work during normal office hours, lack health insurance and face language barriers. (Angelica Edwards/Enlace Latino NC, CatchLight Local via AP)

Mayor William D. Rawls Jr., the first Black mayor of Brownsville, Tenn., sits for a portrait on July 10, 2024, in the lobby of the Rawls Funeral Home, founded by his grandfather. Elected to office in 2014, he started the Healthy Moves Initiative, a health education and preventive care effort. (Ariel J. Cobbert/Capital B, CatchLight Local via AP)

Mayor William D. Rawls Jr., the first Black mayor of Brownsville, Tenn., sits for a portrait on July 10, 2024, in the lobby of the Rawls Funeral Home, founded by his grandfather. Elected to office in 2014, he started the Healthy Moves Initiative, a health education and preventive care effort. (Ariel J. Cobbert/Capital B, CatchLight Local via AP)

Michael Dennis, left, 25, a second-year Campbell Medical Student, and Genesis Garcia, right, 22, an NC FIELD intern, draw blood from Sabino Reyes, a farmworker, at a mobile health clinic organized by NC FIELD outside María, Reina de las Américas Catholic Church in Mt. Olive, N.C., on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. The mobile clinic is adapted to treat rural patients, many of them agricultural workers, who often work during normal office hours, lack health insurance and face language barriers. (Angelica Edwards/Enlace Latino NC, CatchLight Local via AP)

Michael Dennis, left, 25, a second-year Campbell Medical Student, and Genesis Garcia, right, 22, an NC FIELD intern, draw blood from Sabino Reyes, a farmworker, at a mobile health clinic organized by NC FIELD outside María, Reina de las Américas Catholic Church in Mt. Olive, N.C., on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. The mobile clinic is adapted to treat rural patients, many of them agricultural workers, who often work during normal office hours, lack health insurance and face language barriers. (Angelica Edwards/Enlace Latino NC, CatchLight Local via AP)