Jim Samples plays with his dogs Brigitte, left, and Baxter, right, in his home in Chattanooga. Samples is nominated for the Jefferson Award for his volunteer work with AIDS patients.When concern about the spread of AIDS hit fever pitch in the 1980s, Chattanooga was one of many Southern cities without clinics and education to combat the disease.
Jim Samples, now 65, said he watched as many of his dying friends were ostracized by their families and faced public ridicule.
“Even the hospitals didn’t want to help,” said Samples. “At that time, it was just a horror story. Nobody wanted to do anything. … We didn’t know what HIV really was.”
Samples opened the city’s first AIDS resource center, Chattanooga CARES, on Brainerd Road in 1986. He said he was forced to leave the property when it was learned he was helping people with AIDS, what many called the “gay disease.”
“I got death threats,” he said. “People were going to burn down my house.”