James Palmer, 80, physician for civil rights activists in ’60s

James Palmer didn’t know how to cook when he moved to Atlanta in 1962.

He became a fixture at Paschal’s Restaurant, considered by many to be the headquarters of the civil rights movement. Dining there put the medical doctor in the midst of movement stalwarts such as John Lewis, Julian Bond and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Dr. James Palmer was the internist to many civil rights activists in Atlanta. He also helped out young people.

Dr. Palmer became the family physician for many of them, notably the King family.

“He was basically in the circle, you know, so he treated them all,” said his son, James D. Palmer Jr. of San Diego. “His office was right off Hunter Street,” which is now called Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Dr. James Lawrence Dibble Palmer Sr., 80, of Atlanta died Feb. 6 at his home from complications of Pick’s Disease, a progressively degenerative neurological disease similar to Alzheimer’s. The funeral is 11 a.m. Thursday at Warren United Methodist Church. Murray Brothers Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Dr. Palmer was born in Sumter, S.C., a funeral home director’s son.

When his father died, the Fisk University undergrad helped his brother run the business for a year before he entered Meharry Medical College in Tennessee. He spent two years in the Air Force where he was the doctor assigned to a general who traveled the Far East, his wife said.

He moved to Atlanta and, with a partner, opened an office near Paschal’s. U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), in his autobiography “Walking With the Wind,” remembers suffering a rare bout of fatigue in 1968.

“… I went to see my doctor in Atlanta, an internist named James Palmer, who counted many SNCC and SCLC people — including Dr. King — as his patients,” Lewis wrote. “Dr. Palmer took one look at me and checked me into a hospital. ‘That’s the only way,’ he said, ‘that you’re going to sit still and get any rest.’ “

Besides being a personal physician for some of the movement’s leaders, Dr. Palmer also aided the release of jailed student protesters. He gave depositions on behalf of injured protesters.

Julian Bond, current NAACP chairman and co-founder of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, remembered Palmer patching up bruised college students involved in the civil rights movement.

“This is a great loss,” said Mr. Bond, who also used Dr. Palmer as his family physician. “When any of us had any complaints, you could always go to Dr. Palmer and he would take care of us.”

There were numerous occasions when Dr. Palmer gave young people a hand, from guidance to help with college enrollment, his son said.

“I am an only child, but my father helped so many people that they treated him like a father,” he said. “It allowed me to have brothers and sisters that I would not have had.”

In 1997, Dr. Palmer retired and turned his practice over to a partner. At the time, he’d told family members that he felt himself “slipping,” said Rose Martin Palmer, his wife of 44 years. “I said to people then that he might be getting Alzheimer’s,” she said.

Mrs. Palmer acknowledged that her husband could very well be deemed “the doctor of the civil rights movement,” but noted that the movement involved thousands of people, many acting behind the scenes.

“You know,” his wife said, “there were others who helped out, too.”

Additional survivors include a brother, Edmond Perry Palmer Jr. of Columbia; and three grandchildren.

— Staff writer Marcus Garner contributed to this article.