Desiring to help his people in what is known as the "black
belt" of Florida, he severed his connection with the Stanton
Institute and went to Lake City and established the Florida
Normal and Industrial Institute. There he prepared many
young men and women to teach in the district schools. This
school was operated under the General Congregational
Association of Florida, of which Dr. Culp is a member.

In 1886 he accepted an appointment from the American
Missionary Association to take charge of the church and
school at Florence, Ala. He did not remain there long before
the same board appointed him to the pastorate of the First
Congregational Church in Nashville, Tenn. It was here that
Dr. Culp became deeply concerned about the physical
salvation of his race. To fit himself to do actual work
along this line, he resigned his pastorate over the
strongest protests of his members, and entered the Medical
School of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. After
remaining in this college for some time, studying with the
avidity and success of former years, he left and entered the
Ohio Medical College, where he could enjoy the advantages of
the study of the superior hospital facilities. Here he
graduated with honors in 1891, and again came South,
locating in Augusta, Ga.

Shortly after his arrival in Augusta, Dr. Culp having
demonstrated his high capabilities and fitness, was elected
by the City Council to be superintendent and resident
physician of the Freedmen's Hospital in that city. This