Dr. Alvin Blount, a longtime physician and human rights activist, is the recipient of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University's Human Rights Medal for 2007.

Blount graduated from N.C. A&T in 1943 and Howard University's School of Medicine in 1947. He completed his surgical residency in Winston-Salem at Kate Bittings Reynolds Memorial Hospital in 1950.

A captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Blount served as acting chief of surgery for the 8225th MASH Unit in Korea from 1951 until 1952. Upon completing his military service, he started a medical practice in Greensboro that continued for over five decades. In 1994, he retired from practicing fulltime but continues to see patients. Blount currently serves as the medical director for the Guilford Health Care Center and is an executive committee member of Kindred Hospital (formerly L. Richardson Hospital). He was chief of surgery for L. Richardson Hospital for more than 23 years.

A community activist, Blount was among those individuals who championed the destruction of racial barriers and the development of positive race relations in Greensboro. He is the only living litigant of the suit Simkins v. Moses H. Cone Hospital. As a result of a 1963 landmark Supreme Court decision, hospitals throughout the South were desegregated and Blount became the first black surgeon admitted to the medical staff of Moses Cone Hospital. He was also one of the earliest black members of the United Fund and played an active role in helping the city stay on a course of civility during the Greensboro sit-ins.

Blount has been an integral part of A&T's growth. He was a 1966 charter member of the N.C. A&T Foundation Board, where he serves as president-emeritus. He was president of the foundation for 23 years, and under his leadership, over $26 million was raised for the university. In 1983, A&T awarded Blount an honorary doctor of humanities and in 2000, the foundation board established the Dr. A.V. Blount Scholarship Fund.

Blount is affiliated with numerous organizations including Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, NAACP, Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity and the Association of Guardsmen. He is co-founder of the Century Club for Hayes Taylor YMCA and a member of their Hall of Fame. In addition, Blount is honorary past grand master and medical director of the Prince Hall Masons of North Carolina and past president of the Greensboro's Men's Club. He has received countless awards including the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest honor that can be granted to a civilian in the state of North Carolina.

Blount is married to the former Gwendolyn Harris. They have seven children and nine grandchildren.