A clinical professor of osteopathic surgical specialties at MSUCOM, Dr. Anderson is also the associate dean of the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he is responsible for the development of osteopathic medical education programs within the St. John Health System in Michigan.

He has the distinction of being the first African-American president of the American Osteopathic Association, a life-member of the NAACP, and a member of the board of directors of the American Osteopathic Association for 18 years. He holds other honorary doctorate degrees from a number of osteopathic medical schools, and counts among his awards the Distinguished Service Award from the AOA, the Physician of the Year Award from the Michigan Osteopathic Association, and the Walter F. Patenge Medal of Public Service from MSUCOM.

Most importantly, Dr. Anderson will always be recognized as a key figure in the civil rights movement, one of a very small minority of African-Americans who struggled to enter the field of health care in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1956, for example, as the first African-American intern accepted at the Flint Osteopathic Hospital, Dr. Anderson had to fight for the right to see white patients.

A personal friend of Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Anderson was also one of the co-founders and the first president of the historic Albany Movement, one of several civil rights groups active in southwest Georgia. Founded in 1961, the group helped organize voter registration drives, protests, and boycotts during the turbulent 1960s.