Mr. Frederick Douglas Funderburg was a native of Anniston, Ala., who worked as a Pullman employee, and a barber for eight years before entering medical school. Mr. Funderburg graduated from Meharry Medical School, and soon after graduation, he went to Monticello to practice medicine for a short while. But the " Negro Physician", (as he was referred to, because he tended only the black community), stayed in Monticello for fifty years, from 1922 to 1972.

During Dr. Funderburg's "Short Practice", Monticello's only black physician died, and he was called upon to become the physician to the white community as well.

In 1938 a flu epidemic hit Georgia, and killed the only available white doctor in Jasper and Putman Counties. The white citizens had no other choice but to call on Dr. Funderburg, who attended as many as sixty white patients a day, and succeeded in checking the epidemic.

The professional relationship between this black doctor and his white patients presented challenges. However, Dr. Funderburg established his medical expertise, leading to a growing patient base that included bank officials, schoolteachers, and members of prominent families in Georgia.

Dr. Frederick Douglas Funderburg overcame prejudice with skill, and opened doors for other African American doctors, who won the respect of many white Southerners. He is believed to have retired in 1982.