From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Public Health and African Americans in Kentucky, 1866-1950
(start date: 1866 - end date: 1950)Written by Reinette F. Jones, August 2024, with reference help from the University of Kentucky Medical Center Library Reference Department; Beth Reeder, Assistant Director of Operations at the UK Medical Center Library; and Cindy Cline, UK Special Collections Cataloger.
BRIEF OVERVIEW:
The practice of public health dates to ancient times when communities were monitored for the spread of infections and diseases, with the goal of good sanitation for the entire city. The practice arrived in the United States with the early settlers. In the 1700s a few cities (e.g., Baltimore) had their own board of health.
The Public Health Movement in the United States began in the 1800s as a social reform movement in housing, sanitation, labor, medicine, and disease prevention. Between 1800 and 1850, boards of health were established at the state level, which led to more boards of health at the city level. The American Public Health Association was formed in 1872 and continues today. The National Negro Health Movement had been aligned with National Negro Health Week, 1915-1950.
In Kentucky, in the 1830s, Maysville and Louisville each had a city-wide board of health. Regular health reports were published in Kentucky newspapers. These reports did not include the health of those enslaved; public health measures were segregated. Slave deaths may be found in the U.S. Census Mortality Schedules. The Kentucky Medical Association was established in 1851.
For African Americans in Kentucky, one of the earliest hospitals was established in 1866 in Louisville at the corner of 17th Street and Broadway. The Freedmen's Bureau had established the hospital for the formerly enslaved Africans. When the Freedmen's Bureau left Kentucky, Rev. Henry Adams agreed to take charge of the hospital and provide care for the 18 patients who were in the hospital. Four weeks later, Rev. Adams turned the hospital over to the Louisville Union Aid and Hospital Association for Colored People. The association had 12 African American male members. There would continue to be African American-owned and managed hospitals in various locations in Kentucky up to the 1960s. Source: "Colored Hospital," The Louisville Daily Journal, 02/07/1866, front page.
At the statewide level, the Kentucky State Board of Health was established in 1878 to oversee the health of all people in Kentucky. There were no African Americans or women members on the board. During the first year, a city board of health was created in 72 of the 117 Kentucky counties. Ten years later, there were 114 counties with a board of health. When African Americans requested representation on the state board of health, there were unfulfilled promises.
Not waiting for more promises, the Louisville National Medical College opened in 1888, and the faculty built the Citizen's Auxiliary Hospital. The Colored Medical Association of Kentucky was established in 1898. The organization's largest meeting was held in Frankfort, KY in 1909. The Red Cross Hospital and Nurse Training Department was founded in 1899 in Louisville. In the early 1900s, the Kentucky Tuberculosis Commission began creating public health leagues in various Kentucky cities. The movement included a few African American public health leagues. The members of all the leagues could be any respected person in the community, most of whom had no medical training. The development of health leagues did not replace the requests from African Americans for representation and more health care services from the Kentucky State Board of Health.
In 1908, the Kentucky State Board of Health created the nation's first full-time county health departments in Jefferson County. The overall development of county health departments was a slow process in Kentucky. It would not be until the 1930s that health departments were established in at least half of the counties.
During the 1923 campaign for Kentucky governor, Republican Charles I. Dawson promised that if he were elected, there would be a "Negro State Board of Health, or a Negro Department run exclusively by Negro personnel for treatment of Negroes and Negro rural schools." Dawson lost the governor's race to William J. Fields, ending the possibility of his fulfilling the promise he had made to the 350 African Americans who had attended his campaign meeting at Odd Fellows Hall in Louisville. Source: "Speaks in Louisville," The Courier-Journal, 11/01/1923, p. 2.
During the 1920s, Miss Lydia Spoeneman from Louisville was a white advisory nurse with the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health. In her role as a nurse with the State Board of Health, she was instrumental in helping to organize child health clinics for African American children under the age of six. Early clinics had been organized by local health organizations in Henderson, KY in 1922 and in Maysville, KY in 1923. The child health clinics were provided at irregular intervals in random cities.
In 1940, the Beecher Terrace Health Center in Louisville was completed within the Beecher Terrace housing projects. It was the first time in the United States that a health center had been included in a housing projects complex. The center was under the supervision of the Jefferson County Health Department. The facility was staffed by an African American doctor, nurses, clerks, and inspectors. Financing for the operation, $8,225, was received from the Rosenwald Fund. A second health center was placed in the Louisville Clarksdale Housing Projects. Sources: "Rosenwald gift gives Louisville health center," The State [South Carolina], 12/12/1940, p. 13; "Wants more nurses," The Courier-Journal, 10/29/1944, Section 3, p. 6.
A scattering of clinics for dental care, vaccinations, venereal disease treatment, and well-baby care continued to be held specifically for African Americans in Kentucky cities, many initiated by the Kentucky State Board of Health. In 1974, the State Board of Health was abolished, and all duties were moved to the Kentucky Department of Human Resources. The Kentucky Department for Public Health is now within the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
While public health care was being addressed in the United States and in Kentucky, far too often African Americans were blamed in the public health literature for spreading contagious diseases and practicing poor hygiene.
"There was the destruction of Southern economy and the consequent surging of ignorant rural negroes into towns, where they gave up the crude health insurance provided by the slave system and in exchange received freedom and complete neglect. Thereafter, they indulged unhindered in life, liberty, and the pursuit of the venereal diseases. Negro mortality rates rose rapidly above the white, after 1864; and it is hardly exaggeration to say that only within the most recent years have some of the resultant problems been seriously attacked by the American Government." (Shyrock, 1937)
More than half a century later, portions of the repeated words meant to identify the origins of the inequity problem in public health are still being looped into the literature in Kentucky. "When the slaves received their freedom after the Civil War, crude health care which had been provided by the slave masters was traded for complete neglect." (Doyle-Schiavone, 1991)
Sources:
Slave Deaths due to Cholera, 1850 U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule, NKAA Database entry; "Sanitary measures," The Daily Courier," 04/29/1851, p. 3; "Colored doctors meet." The Bourbon News, 05/14/1909, p. 4; "The Negro a Public Health Problem," presentation by Dr. C. E. Terry of Jacksonville, FL, at the Southern Medical Association Conference held in Lexington, KY, November 1913. Terry's presentation was published in the Southern Medical Journal, June 1914, vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 458-467. See Richard H. Shryock, "The Early American Public Health Movement," American Journal of Public Health and The Nation's Health, vol. 27, no. 10, October 1937, pp. 965-971. Quotation on p. 970.; A History of Public Health Administration in Kentucky, 1920-1940 by Broadus B. Jackson [1962 dissertation]; The Kentucky State Board of Health by Colleen Doyle-Schiavone [1991 thesis]. Quotation on p. 110; Building Public Health in a Rural State: Strategies for Preventing Disease in Kentucky, 1883-1914 by Abigail Stephens [2021 thesis]. Online at UKnowledge; Enthroning Health: The National Negro Health Movement and the fight to control public health policy in the African American community, 1915-1950 by Paul A. Braff [2020 dissertation]; Charles I. Dawson Papers at the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center, collection guide (online).
AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH CARE IN KENTUCKY:
With all that has been written about public health in Kentucky, there is not a published history that encompasses the African American experience. Information in this entry was gathered from newspapers, health reports, journal articles, books, theses, and other publications that are referenced in the sources and other sections of this entry. Starting in the 1800s, public health services in Kentucky were provided to African Americans in a combination of ways:
- Public health services were provided by African American public health workers and medical personnel, African American-owned and managed hospitals and clinics, and African American Red Cross nurses.
- Colored public health leagues monitored and educated their communities about infectious diseases and hygiene.
- Colored public health leagues forwarded requests to the State Board of Health or the Tuberculosis Commission for a visiting African American nurse to come care for those who were ill in the African American community.
- White public health workers and personnel at whites-only health care facilities provided limited services to a selected group of African Americans, such as the health clinics for children under the age of six.
- In response to an epidemic, there were cities and counties that created segregated pest houses and isolation hospitals to keep the races separate during the treatment period.
- There were colored hospitals established and managed by white doctors and/or city health officials, such as the Thomas & Gaither Colored Hospital in Hopkinsville.
Organizations for whites in Kentucky included the Stanford Public Health Association formed in 1873. By 1913, the Danville-Junction City Public Health League, Cloverport Public Health League, Henderson Public Health League, Maysville Public Health League, and the Springfield Public Health League were established under the efforts of the Kentucky Tuberculosis Commission. It was the commission's goal to have public health leagues in every Kentucky city to monitor and report cases of tuberculosis and other health concerns.
In Frankfort, the Negro Public Health League was formed in 1913. The Maysville Colored Public Health League was formed the following year, as was the Colored Public Health League in Henderson. The Ashland Public Health and Welfare League was formed for whites in 1914. The Central Kentucky Public Health Nurses Association for whites was formed in 1917. During WWI, the Kentucky Public Health and Welfare League society was formed in Louisville at the request of the U.S. Department of National Defense and under the direction of the National Tuberculosis Association. The new organization was to help protect the public from the potential increase in the number of tuberculosis cases when soldiers returned home. A tuberculosis and public health campaign was to take place throughout the state in cooperation with the Kentucky Tuberculosis Commission, the State Board of Health, city public health leagues, and other agencies. Sources: "To form Health and Welfare League today," The Courier-Journal, 04/26/1917, p. 6; "Purposes of Health League are explained," The Post (Covington), 04/30/1917, p. 3.
Immediately after WWI ended, preliminary steps for organizing the Kentucky Public Health Association were undertaken in Louisville by a group of social workers in February of 1919. The group had come together for the Conference of Social Workers with guest speaker Dr. Lee K. Frankel, President of the American Public Health Association. The conference was held at the Temple Adath Israel. The plan was for there to be a Kentucky Public Health Association as an affiliate of the American Public Health Association. But at the conclusion of the conference, the social workers did not establish the Kentucky Public Health Association.
Three months later, Dr. Arthur T. McCormack, Chief Public Health Officer of the Kentucky Department of Health, requested that the Health Committee of the Woman's Club in Louisville, KY take the lead in developing the Kentucky Public Health Association. The association was organized on May 13, 1919. The first convention was held in Louisville on May 2, 1921. It was a Louisville-centered organization that continued to grow with predominately white male members. Separate public health organizations continued to be developed for African Americans, with the Paducah Colored Public Health League established in 1923.
The Kentucky death rate caused by acute infectious diseases per 100,000, from 1911-1923, was first and foremost due to tuberculosis (all forms), followed by pneumonia (all forms), infantile diarrhea, diphtheria, puerperal* (all causes), whooping cough, typhoid and paratyphoid, scarlet fever, measles, malaria, and smallpox. Tuberculosis was the most widely spread infectious disease in Kentucky. African Americans were dying from tuberculosis at more than twice the rate of whites. Yellow fever and cholera were not on the list, and the numbers were at the lowest for smallpox. Annual death rates by race and county were published in the Bulletin of the State Board of Health of Kentucky, journal of the Kentucky State Board of Health. Source: "Public health in Kentucky," Kentucky Medical Journal, December 1927, pp. 27-36 (online at Internet Archive).
*Puerperal - childbed fever, postpartum infections, caused by bacterial infections of the female reproductive tract.
By 1930, there were both city and regional public health associations in Kentucky, including the Eastern District of the Kentucky Public Health Nursing Association, the West Kentucky Public Health Unit Association in Paducah, The Green River Valley Public Health Association, and the Western Kentucky Public Health Association.
DISCUSSION: AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH EXPECTATIONS ~
In 1913, Dr. S. B. Jones had a broad view of public health care among African Americans. Starting with the freedom of enslaved Africans in 1863, Dr. Jones spoke of public health care being the shared responsibility of the entire African American community. Dr. S. B. Jones was a resident physician at the A & M College in Greensboro, NC.
"Various agencies are at work in promoting better conditions of public health: there are the literary and industrial schools, skillful Negro physicians, trained nurses and devoted teachers, interested state boards of health, and an enlightened public sentiment." Source: "Fifty Years of Negro Public Health" by S. B. Jones, M.D." in The Negro's Progress in Fifty Years: the annals, vol. XLIX, September 1913, p. 145.
Diana-Lyn Baptiste, et al., in their 2021 editorial, would extend the timeline for Black public health to the nurses of a much earlier period than the year of Emancipation, 1863. This was also true for Kentucky. There are newspaper and archival references to enslaved and free colored nurses in Kentucky caring for whites and enslaved Africans who had diseases such as smallpox and cholera. After Emancipation, African Americans who were recognized as nurses were called upon more and more to treat other African Americans. In 1924, Kentucky Democrat Thomas H. Golden of Carroll County put forth House Bill 351: "Requiring providing for Negro nurses to care for all Negro persons. (Public Health)" Source: "Bills in General Assembly," The Courier-Journal, 02/02/1924, p. 10.
WHAT IS A PUBLIC HEALTH NURSE? ~
The public health nurse had special training in public health work. Their role was to protect the health of the community. Public health nurses, who spent most of their time in the prevention of sickness, were employed by the schools, the county, and private organizations. Source: "What is a public health nurse?" The Shelby Sentinel, 11/23/1923, p. 3.
In 1926, there was a national census of the Negro Public Health Nurses. Four nurses from Kentucky were included in the data. The census publication was followed by "A Study of Negro Public Health Nursing" in 1930. The study was presented as a problem-finding project, starting with Negro nursing as a problem. The researchers were Marjory Stimson, R.N., and Louise M. Tattershall, Statistician of the National Organization for Public Health Nursing. The reports and statistics were compiled by Stanley Rayfield, who published "A Study of Negro public health nursing" in The Public Health Nurse, vol. 22, October 1930, pp. 525-536. See also "Census of public health nursing," The Public Health Nurse, vol. 18, pp. 311-313, May 1926. Online at Google Books.
No Kentucky city was included in the 1930 study, which focused on Negro nurses in northern cities. It was suggested that a more intense study would have to be made of those in the South before the data could benefit programs and agencies in the South. Forty-eight African American nurses and forty-three white supervisors of the nurses were interviewed.
From the study results, it was determined that the most urgent need for African American nurses was fundamental training that could be addressed with a well-rounded home life and adequate preliminary education. Monthly salaries in the North ranged from $100-$135. In the South, the range was $75-$90. Among the many conclusions, the survey was said to confirm that "Negro nurses are not yet qualified to meet the requirements of public health nursing agencies." [p. 530]
The 1946 census of Negro public health nurses counted 1,154 employed in the United States. Twenty of them were said to be employed in eight Kentucky agencies: 17 nurses employed in five Department of Health Agencies, and three employed in three non-official agencies. These were primarily nurses in Louisville. Two years later, in 1948, there were 25 African American public health nurses in Kentucky with 18 employed by the Health Department in Louisville. This is good information. Someday there may be a census of the 119 other counties in Kentucky and the varying levels of employment and services that ranged from a few to none. Source: "The 1946 Census of Public Health Nurses" in National Negro Health News, vol. 14, October-December 1946, no. 4, pp. 16-18. Online at Google Books.
IN KENTUCKY: SELECTED PUBLIC HEALTH EVENTS
LOUISVILLE ~
In 1866, one of the earliest hospitals for African Americans in Kentucky was in Louisville at the corner of 17th Street and Broadway. The hospital had been established by the Freedmen's Bureau and would later be managed by the Louisville Union Aid and Hospital Association for Colored People. Several other hospitals would be established in Louisville by African Americans.
In 1911, Bertha M. Thomas (1880-1985) was recognized as one of the first African American public health nurses in Louisville. She was also one of the first African American registered nurses in Kentucky. Thomas was the superintendent at the Red Cross Sanitarium and Nurses Training School. She would later become a staff member of the Visiting Nurse Association of the Community Chest. Bertha Thomas was the last of the first small group of public health nurses to still be employed in Louisville in 1946. She was a member of the Louisville Alpha Society of Graduate Nurses. See Bertha M. Thomas @ Find A Grave.
During Thomas' career in 1924, the recommendation for more colored public health nurses was the top need recognized from a survey of hospitals and health agencies in Louisville. Dr. Haver Emerson and Anna C. Phillips conducted the survey. J. M. Ragland wrote the newspaper report about the survey results concerning African Americans. One of the conclusive comments was that the death rate among African Americans was exceeding the birth rate due to tuberculosis. There was a high death rate among the children due to the illnesses and diseases that plagued those under the age of five.
Many reasons were given for the situation: low wages, bad housing, improper sanitation, bad working conditions, and a lack of knowledge for seeking medical care. It was deduced from the survey that the patient shared in the blame for the ongoing situation. The recommended additional colored public health nurses would be assigned to specific districts to teach home hygiene and "more intelligent" uses of clinics, hospitals, and other health facilities. Source: "Survey of hospitals, health agencies in city, 1924 by Haver Emerson, M. D., and Anna C. Phillips," The Courier-Journal, 08/20/1925, p. 6.
In 1935, the Negro Health Center opened in the Negro Recreation Center on Chestnut Street in Louisville. Medical clinics and surgical clinics were held on alternate days, Monday through Saturday. The facility was under the supervision of the Medical Department at the University of Louisville. Irma Dorsey was the nurse in charge. Source: "Negro Health Center is to open Monday," The Courier Journal, 05/25/1935, p. 2.
Two years later, in 1937, the Negro Health Center was upgraded and became the Central Louisville Health Center and Chestnut Street Treatment Center. The operation was funded by a $5,000 donation from the Rosenwald Fund. Dr. Coleman Milton Young, Jr. (1899-1984) was in charge of the health center and Dr. John R. Nurse (1899-1964) was a supervisor at the treatment center. There were seven nurses, a sanitary inspector, and two clerks. Source: "Gift helps Negroes get modern health center," The Courier-Journal, 11/15/1940, Section 3, p. 1.
In 1940, a separate Health Center opened at the Louisville Beecher Terrace Housing Projects. The center was under the supervision of the Jefferson County Health Department. Coleman Milton Young, Jr. had left his previous job and was named the head doctor at the new center. Dr. Young had recently earned a public health degree at the University of Minnesota with financial support from the Rosenwald Fund. The first dental clinic for African Americans in Louisville was established in the Beecher Terrace Health Center in 1942. Dr. Doxie Peter Green (1922-1988) would become a staff physician at the facility in the 1950s. Sources: "Rosenwald gift gives Louisville health center," The State [South Carolina], 12/12/1940, p. 13; "Negro dental clinic now operating here," The Courier-Journal, 03/20/1942, p. 30; "Doxie Peter Green, prominent Louisville doctor, dies at 66," The Courier-Journal, 03/21/1988.
The Beecher Terrace Health Center would remain in operation for more than 40 years. When it was established in 1940, the center was hailed as a great success for African American public health in Louisville. The Negro Health Week Committee planned a celebration in honor of Louisville being recognized with an All-America Trophy for the improvement in Negro health. It was suggested that all the African American public health workers in Louisville should attend the celebration to take a bow and receive the praise they deserved.
In 1942, when approval was given for a Negro wing to be added to the Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Louisville, it was viewed as another major accomplishment. There had been a Negro Division at the hospital, with Esther Maxwell Barrens (1882-1954) as the head nurse supervisor from 1907-1935. In 1942, the division was to be upgraded into a new wing of the facility. The addition was one of several public health facilities for African Americans in Louisville. Much more was needed. In 1947, there were 13 African American public health nurses in Louisville, and the following year there were 18. Louisville had far more public health care facilities and personnel for African Americans than any other city in Kentucky. Louisville also had, and still has, the largest African American population in Kentucky*. There were much larger needs there, and therefore that's where the resources, influence, and demand to address the needs existed.
*Approximately 21% of the African American population in Kentucky lives in Louisville/Jefferson County, which has the largest urban area in Kentucky. The remaining 79% of the African American population resides in smaller urban areas and the more rural areas of Kentucky (119 counties). Source: Kentucky: 2020 Census, August 25, 2021 @ Census.gov: Kentucky Public Health: 2017 Kentuck Racial and Ethnic Distribution (online .pdf).
FRANKFORT ~
The term "public health" had not been added to the responsibilities of early African American nurses in Kentucky. In Frankfort, John Clay was referred to as a nurse. He had cared for Captain George E. Walcutt, who had smallpox in 1873. Five years later, in 1878, there was a yellow fever epidemic that first appeared in Hickman, KY. Mat Hanson and John Greenup, were two African American nurses sent from Frankfort to Hickman to care for patients. The race of the patients was not mentioned. The two nurses had recovered from the fever, and it was thought by some in the medical profession that a former yellow fever patient could not get the fever again.
Nothing is known about Hanson and Greenup's training as nurses. Educational training was not a concern when the newly created Kentucky State Board of Health sent both physicians and nurses to Hickman during the epidemic in the fall of 1878. Experience was a key value for African American nurses. A month after Hanson and Greenup left Frankfort, it was announced in the Frankfort newspaper that Matt Hanson had returned after recovering from another bout of yellow fever. John Greenup died in Hickman from the fever. By 1929, there was a Colored Hospital in Hickman. Sources: "A specific for small-pox - a brief scrap for local history," Daily Kentucky Yeoman, 02/24/1873, p. 3; see "Mat Hanson" and "John Greenup ...," Weekly Yeoman, 10/15/1878, p. 3; and Kentucky State Board of Health, 1878-1900 by Colleen Doyle-Schiavone [1991 thesis].
In 1898, the Colored Medical Association of Kentucky was established. The organization held the 11th Annual Conference in 1909 at the Corinthian Baptist Church in Frankfort. The conference was the largest gathering of African American doctors in the history of Kentucky. Frankfort Mayor, Dr. E. E. Hume, gave the welcome address. There were white doctors in attendance. Dr. Mary Britton (1855-1925), the first African American woman physician in Lexington, was in attendance as a speaker on the program. Dr. Perry D. Robinson, Sr., also from Lexington, presided over the conference. The main message at the conference was that more fundraising was needed for the building of more African American hospitals in Kentucky. The thought was that more African American hospitals would provide better health care for African Americans and would be a much better option than attempting to gain entrance and care at the segregated white hospitals. Dr. Pinder M. Flack, an African American doctor from Louisville, read a paper on hospitals and public health. Source: "Colored Doctors," Lexington Leader, 05/13/1909, p. 4.
In July of 1913, the Frankfort Negro Public Health League was formed by Roy L. French, Secretary of the State Tuberculosis Commission. The league was said to be composed of the leading Negro leaders, though they were not named. The intention was for more leagues to be formed throughout the state of Kentucky. However, there would only be a few colored leagues.
The Winnie A. Scott Hospital opened on December 26, 1915. The hospital came about after several years of fundraising and continuously pushing the idea forward by the Women's Club Hospital Association, an African American organization. Sources: Kate Sowada, "Site of Winnie A. Scott Hospital," an ExploreKYHistory webpage; "Colored Hospital to be open to public Sunday," The State Journal, 12/22/1915, p. 8.
In 1923, Lutie Reid, from Sulphur, KY, was the only African American nurse employed by the Frankfort Health Department. Her employment was brief. Reid spent most of her nursing career in Louisville. Lutie Reid (1889-1963) was a 1910 graduate of the Louisville Red Cross Hospital Nurse Training Program. She was among the first African American graduate nurses in Kentucky, and the first African American nurse employed in the Louisville public schools for African Americans. See "Funeral Thursday for retired nurse," The Courier-Journal, 09/10/1963, p. 10.
At the 4th Annual Conference of the Kentucky Inter-Racial Commission held in Louisville in 1923, Dr. E. E. Underwood read a paper on how race prejudice continued to negatively impact the health of African Americans in Kentucky. Dr. Underwood was an African American physician in Frankfort. He stressed that there were no colleges in Kentucky for the training of Negro nurses and doctors. Other African Americans from around the state also read reports. The consensus was that African Americans in Kentucky needed better and more public health care. In response to the reports, Dr. Aurthur T. McCormack, Kentucky Chief Public Health Officer, announced that within a year an African American representative would be added to the Kentucky State Board of Health. The representative would be a physician fully qualified in every way. Source: "Dr. Underwood impresses state Board of Health reads paper before body," State Journal, 12/08/1923, p. 8.
Perhaps Dr. McCormack's intentions had been misinterpreted by the media, because he was soon backtracking on his words. In a matter of days, news of the possibility of an African American being assigned to the State Board of Health created tension in Kentucky. Dr. A. T. McCormack issued a letter vehemently denying that he had ever made such a promise and that he knew nothing about such a report. He insinuated that the newspapers had created the news. In a funambulism fashion, the Lexington Herald newspaper pointed out that membership to the Kentucky State Board of Health was the decision of the state medical society and the governor. The newspaper made a case for membership based on qualifications and need, not race. In a spin and twist conclusion, the newspaper praised Dr. McCormack for making the right choice in issuing a letter of explanation. Source: The State Board of Health," The Lexington Herald, 12/16/1923, Section 3, p. 1.
PADUCAH ~
As early as 1904, there was a Colored Red Cross Lodge in Paducah. It was one of the earliest Colored Red Cross groups in Kentucky that formed prior to WWI. In May 1918, the Colored Red Cross held a celebration for the African American soliders contributions during WWI. The group was referred to as the Colored Division of the Red Cross. Sources: "The Colored Red Cross Lodge," The Paducah Evening Sun, 07/07/1904, p. 5; ""Over the Top" is slogan of Colored Red Cross workers," The News-Democrat, 05/24/1918, p. 8; "Saluting Black History Month - African American Leadership in the American Red Cross," Red Cross webpage.
Twenty years later, in 1923, Emma Lewis led the recently organized Paducah Colored Public Health League. The league was under the McCracken County Public Health League for whites. Emma Lewis assisted Dr. Royal W. Grubbs with the first Health Conference (a clinic) for Paducah's Colored Children. The clinic was held at Burk's Chapel. Additional clinics were to be held each month.
Dr. Royal W. Grubbs (1886-1937) was an African American physician from Paducah. He would leave his hometown for Gary, IN, where he was president of the staff at St. John Hospital. Dr. Grubbs was living in Indiana when he died from a heart condition. Sources: "New hospital is praised by Colored folk," The Lake County Times, 12/09/1929, p. 13; see Royal W. Grubbs' Indiana Standard Certificate of Death, Local No. 287-160, Registered No. 9484 (Ancestry).
In 1930, Dr. George Weston was the new African American city physician. Eleven African American children were vaccinated at the Health Center of the McCracken County Public Health League. There were plans to hold a Child Health Conference for Colored Children at Lincoln High School in Paducah.
The City of Paducah had a Colored Isolation Hospital in 1930. The facility, located at Park Avenue and Fourth Street, was at the back of the Ewart Purcell Isolation Hospital for whites. African American patients were admitted to the colored hospital for the treatment of contagious diseases. For the 1930-31 period, the hospital treated 17 patients for a variety of diseases: chicken pox, diphtheria, a case of suspected erysipelas, and meningitis. Sources: "Isolation unit nearly ready," The Sun-Democrat, 06/08/1930, p. 8; "Colored Hospital Report," The Sun-Democrat, 10/13/1931, p. 2.
HOPKINSVILLE ~
In 1904, there was a smallpox epidemic in Hopkinsville. Dr. A. T. McCormack of the State Board of Health issued orders for mandatory smallpox vaccinations for all persons in Hopkinsville, with extra enforcement of the order for African Americans. It was insinuated that African Americans were the cause of the epidemic. Though it was the epidemic that had made the smallpox vaccination freely available to everyone in the city, this was after the fact that there had been much less concern and less drastic measures given toward the number of smallpox cases thought to be contained within the African American community.
The Hopkinsville Kentuckian newspaper reported that African Americans in the city feared the orders and were therefore voluntarily getting themselves vaccinated. Written notices were to serve as a warning that all persons in Hopkinsville who did not return their vaccination certificates would be arrested and fined.
Treatment during the epidemic was segregated. Dr. J. B. Jackson, who was white, was credited for rounding up all the smallpox cases among African Americans in the entire Christian County area. Among those infected, there were said to be 26 cases in the Concord Colored Hospital, with a few more cases to be added, and 12 cases had already been cured and released. A separate pest house for African Americans was established in Gracey, KY. Fourteen African American patients were confined to the facility under the watch of guards. Dr. C. R. Crow was in charge of the pest houses (both black and white) with orders to vaccinate everyone.
When the reporting of the epidemic situation was called into question, the Hopkinsville Kentuckian stated that if their reports were not true and correct, then it was because the newspaper had been misled by the authorities.
Sources: "Vigorously cleaning up smallpox," Hopkinsville Kentuckian, 11/26/1904, front page; "High tide reached in smallpox," Hopkinsville Kentuckian, 12/08/1904, front page.
In 1918, an attempt was made to burn down the business block in Hopkinsville. The building on the block contained a number of businesses, including Dr. Gaither's Colored Hospital. In 1926, the name of the facility was Thomas & Gaither's Colored Hospital, located at 1091/2 E. 7th Street. Dr. Francis Preston Thomas and Dr. Joseph Gant Gaither were white doctors on the staff at the Jennie Stuart Hospital for whites. They had established the colored hospital for African Americans. Sources: "Firebug tries to destroy big part of Hoptown," The Paducah Evening Sun, 05/22/1918, p. 7; Caron's Directory of the City of Hopkinsville KY, for 1926-1927, p. 29.
Two other African American hospitals in Hopkinsville during the 1930s and 1940s were Dr. Bankie O. Moore's Colored Hospital (1931-1953) and Brooks Memorial Hospital (1944-1976). Sources: "Matter of first" in Joe Dorris, "Watching the Parade," Kentucky New Era, 04/04/1981, p. 4; Caron's Hopkinsville, Ky. City Directory for 1930-1931, p. 188; Profiles of Contemporary Black Achievers of Kentucky, by J. B. Horton; Abernethy, Grace. "The Surprising history of 201 S. Virginia Street," Hoptown Chronicle, 02/27/2024. Online.
LEXINGTON ~
In November of 1913, the Southern Medical Association held its annual conference in Lexington. "The Symposium on the Negro in Relation to Public Health" took place on November 17 at 8 p.m. African American physicians could attend the conference, but none were on the program. During the presentations, audience member, Dr. Perry D. Robinson, Sr., an African American physician in Lexington, stood and began to speak about African Americans and public health. This was the same Dr. Robinson who had presided over the 11th Annual Conference of the Colored Medical Association of Kentucky in Frankfort in 1909.
At the 1913 conference in Lexington, Dr. Robinson took issue with African Americans being presented as unclean and having no regard for sanitary laws, and other offensive characterizations. Dr. Robinson's talk was interrupted. During the interruption, a white doctor, W. B. McClure of Lexington, vouched for Dr. Robinson and asked that he be allowed to continue speaking. A motion was put before the members, and it was decided that Dr. Robinson would be allowed to speak, but his statements would be expunged from the symposium record. Determined that his words would continue to be heard, after his presentation Dr. Robinson had his report printed and distributed.
Dr. Perry D. Robinson, Sr. (1862-1940) was born in Pennsylvania and was a medical school graduate of Howard University. His medical practice was in Lexington until he retired and moved to New York. His son, Perry D. Robinson, Jr., had died of tuberculosis in Lexington in 1926.
In 1920, Ella Montague was enumerated in the U.S. Census as an African American public health nurse in Lexington. Carrie Brown and Lavinia Stone were enumerated in the 1930 census. In 1939, Katherine L. Caise (1913-1988) was hired as the African American public health nurse at the Lexington Health Department. Her duties included home nursing care in the African American districts and nursing in all African American schools in Lexington. When Caise resigned in 1946, no other African American applied for the job. Her duties were divided among the other Health Department personnel until a replacement could be hired. The position requirements were for an African American woman who had graduated from a registered nursing program and had her own car. The starting salary was $120 per month with a temporary $15 bonus per month, and the employee would receive paid travel and a car depreciation allowance. Sources: "No applicants seek nursing position here," The Lexington Leader, 07/31/1946, p. 10; "Katherine L. Caise, 75" in "Obituaries: In Lexington," Lexington Herald-Leader, 07/21/1988, p. D11.
In 1934, the Negro Health Center was constructed in Lexington. The address has not been found at this time. The contract for the building went to the Skinner Brothers, who were paid $2,419.85 for their work. The facility was one of the PWA [Public Works Administration] funded projects in Lexington. There is mention of the Lexington colored public health center in The Lexington Herald, 04/23/1950, p. 3. No address was provided nor has one been found at this time.
MAYSVILLE ~
In Maysville there was a Colored Public Health League with more than 50 members. Miss Frances Strawder was president in 1914, and Mrs. W. C. Patton was the secretary/treasurer. Meetings and educational programs were held in the local African American churches, and a picnic was held in Mr. Dixie's Silver Grove Park on E. 4th Street. Audience members were educated about hygiene and illnesses of the body, especially tuberculosis.
Several years later, the Child Health Conference for Colored Children was one of the early health clinics held for African American children in Kentucky. In October of 1923, the clinic was for all African American children under school age. Parents were to bring their children to the Maysville Health Office at 215 Court Street. There was to be a physician at the clinic.
The following year, 1924, the Hayswood Hospital was completed. Two rooms were set aside for African American patients. The African American community was to raise funds for the furnishing of the rooms. Meetings for the purposed fund drive were held at Scott's M. E. Church and Bethel Baptist Church. Source: "Action of Colored citizens meritorious," Public Ledger, 10/22/1924, front page.
In November of 1936, a health clinic for African American babies between the ages of six weeks and six months was held at the Mason County Department of Health on the 3rd floor of the Hord Building in Maysville. The clinic was directed by Dr. Ollie Morris Goodloe (1903-1977), Director of Mason County Public Health, which was under the State Department of Health.
HENDERSON ~
The Henderson Colored Public Health League in 1914 requested that the Kentucky Tuberculosis Commission send a visiting colored nurse to tend to African American tuberculosis patients in Henderson. Two years later, the newly built Henderson County Tuberculosis Sanatorium admitted eight white men, five white women, four African American men, and four African American women. In 1917, there was a Colored Red Cross Association in Henderson. The group met at the A. M. E. Zion Church. Sources: "Summary of the work done by Miss Marian Williamson ...," Bulletin of the State Board of Health of Kentucky, vol. 7, December 1916, p. 12; "Colored," Henderson Gleaner, 06/10/1917, p. 9.
A Colored Baby Clinic was held in 1922 at the Henderson Health Center, located in the Nicholson Building in Henderson. Every African American baby in the county was invited to the clinic to be weighed and measured. The invitation was extended to all the other children in the family who were underweight and in need of treatment. The clinic was held by Edmona Keller, the Red Cross nurse.
In 1934, Jennie Cole was hired as the African American public health nurse at the Henderson County Health Department. It was noted in the newspaper that she was the first African American public health nurse in western Kentucky. In 1940, Cole was the only person noted as "colored" among the many attendees at the clinic held at the Mary Kendall Home in Owensboro by the Kentucky Crippled Children Commission.
African Americans Lizzie Sutton, a nurse, and Janie Taylor, a public health nurse, were both with the American Red Cross in Henderson in 1937, stationed at the Colored Hospital at Washington and Elm Streets. Nurses from the Red Cross had come to Henderson to aid those affected by the 1937 flood (ExploreKYHistory webpage). The nurses were in Henderson for a month, then they were to move on to Louisville. Two white nurses and one African American nurse would remain behind in Henderson to help handle the remainder of the work. At the same time that the two African American nurses arrived in Henderson, the Henderson Colored Red Cross Association had also been called-on to assist with Flood Disaster Relief. The group appointed committees and detailed workers to help in the relief effort. Mrs. Ora Glass (1893-1971) was president of the Henderson Colored Red Cross, and Mrs. M. F. Hampton was secretary. Sources: "Contributed," Sunday Gleaner and Journal, 02/07/1937, p. 7; "Colored Red Cross nurses," Sunday Gleaner and Journal, 02/28/1937, p. 9; "Field representative of nursing section is leaving city today," Henderson Morning Gleaner, 02/26/1937, front page.
In 1948, Jennie Cole was one of the 25 African American public health nurses in Kentucky. As the only one in Henderson, Cole was a leader in public health. In addition to her employment, she served as president of the West Central Region of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. She also worked closely with two African American public workers, Grace Howard and Thelma B. House. Howard was the child-welfare worker for African Americans. She was trained at Kentucky State College and the University of Chicago. Thelma B. House was the fifth African American hired as a home demonstration agent in Kentucky. She served Henderson and Daviess Counties. House was a graduate of Georgia State College.
RICHMOND ~
The Madison County Colored Women's Hospital Association purchased the Elizabeth Clay property in Richmond in 1920. The organization established its hospital on the Clay property which was located on First Street. "Source: "Colored women to open hospital," The Richmond Daily Register, 08/16/1920, p. 2.
In April of 1926, during the designated National Health Week for Negroes, public health nurse Miss Mary P. Lord was scheduled to speak at the chapel exercises at the Negro school in Richmond. There was also a special health program and a campaign against flies at the school. The schoolteachers were to expect essays about health from the students. There would also be a meeting of the mothers at the Colored Baptist Church.
By 1935, the Madison County Health Department had been holding annual tonsil clinics at the Colored Women's Hospital. Ten African American children had their tonsils removed. Doctors who performed the surgeries were J. B. Floyd, C. B. Doty, and H. G. Wells. The hospital closed in 1936. Source: Cobb, J. W. "Colored News Notes," The Richmond Daily Register, 07/27/1935, p. 6.
COVINGTON ~
The Shoemaker Negro Health Center was located on W. 4th Street in Covington in 1925. Mrs. Laura Cuni, a white social worker, was named General Director of Family Case Work at the Center. The Public Health Committee of the Covington Woman's City Club planned to cooperate with Mrs. Cuni during the study of death records and causes of death, which was an effort to decrease the deaths of children under the age of six.
Emma James, R. N. was the African American public health nurse with the Kenton County Health Department. In 1941, she attended an institute for tuberculosis workers given by the National Tuberculosis Association. The institute was held at the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes.
KINGSTON & MIDDLETOWN ~
Three cases of typhoid fever, said to be caused by impure drinking water, were discovered in Kingston in August 1928. A county-wide clinic and inoculations were put in place under the direction of Miss Margaret Dizney, Berea Red Cross Public Health Nurse. The clinics were held under the direction of the State Board of Health and authorized by Dr. J. G. Bosley, Madison County Health Officer. The Middletown Negro School was one of the seven locations where the clinics were held.
WEBSTER COUNTY ~
In 1936, a meeting was held in Dixon, KY to form the Webster County Colored Public Health Council for the African American residents. The council would be working closely with the Webster County Health Department. The organization was to be similar to the public health council that had been formed for whites.
LANCASTER ~
In 1941, Dr. William Johnson and W. H. Johnson were named to the Colored Public Health Committee. The committee was one of the public health groups appointed by the Garrard County Civilian Defense Committee.
A DESEGREGATION EFFORT IN KENTUCKY:
The unsuccessful attempts in 1923 to have an African American on the Kentucky State Board of Health was not the last attempt at integrating public health in Kentucky. In 1948, Kentucky Health Commissioner Dr. Bruce Underwood called for there to be a unified public health profession and association in Kentucky. The present-day Kentucky Public Health Association was established in February 1949. Membership was open to all public health employees in Kentucky, including African American public health employees. The plan was for the unified organization to become a branch of the American Public Health Association.
The first conference of the newly formed organization was to be held at the Brown Hotel in Louisville from March 23-25, 1949. Every public health worker was invited to attend the conference. Kentucky Governor Earle Clements was to speak at the 3-day event. When all the plans were in place, a problem was brought to the attention of the organization. The event planners had somehow overlooked the fact that the Brown Hotel in Louisville was segregated. African Americans were not welcomed at the hotel.
The fix was to have the conference sessions held at the Warren Memorial Presbyterian Church that was located across the street from the Brown Hotel. This would allow all to attend the sessions, while the conference banquet would be held for whites at the Brown Hotel as planned. African Americans would have to find their own lodging and dining options during the conference. Dr. Bruce Underwood reiterated that the newly formed Kentucky Public Health Association meetings were to be open to anyone and everyone.
Sources: "Segregation rule prompts plans change," The Lexington Herald, 3/17/1949, p. 19; Photo image of the Warren Memorial Presbyterian Church in the University of Louisville Libraries Digital Collection.
SUMMARY:
This entry is a first attempt to gather a historical perspective of public health as it developed for African Americans in Kentucky. There are hundreds of publications that address the long history of health care inequity in the United States based on race. There is also a hefty collection of literature about public health in Kentucky, though none of these sources address the history of African Americans in regard to public health services and employees, organizations, and facilities in Kentucky. Still, there are many decades of information that reference the combination of segregated services and facilities.
The challenge is knowing where to find the information. The research requires searching beyond the known publications and names. The search is a journey that includes the details of the lived experiences along with the successes and challenges that African Americans encountered on a regular basis. Many suggested sources have been listed in this entry. There is much more to be told. This entry is a starting point.
As a final note, in 1949, when the Kentucky Public Health Association meeting was integrated, that was not the beginning or the ending. For more than a century there have been individuals and groups in Kentucky fighting for public health equity, adding to the much broader integration effort within the ongoing national Medical Civil Rights Movement that gained momentum during the 1960s. The push for blame-free and better, more equitable public health care continues in Kentucky and the United States. Source: The Medical Civil Rights Movement and Access to Health Care, 01/14/2016, National Library of Medicine blog (online).
SOURCES:
Kentucky Department for Public Health - "The department oversees programs designed to improve the lives of citizens and visitors through prevention of negative health outcomes, promotion of healthy lifestyles and protection from diseases, injury and environmental health impacts."
Theodore H. Tulchinsky and Elena A. Varavikova, "A History of public health," The New Public Health, 3rd ed., pp. 1-42; Richard H. Shryock, "The Origins and significance of the Public Health Movement in the United States," Annals of Medical History, November 1929, pp. 645-665. Online at National Library of Medicine; Howard D. Kramer, "The Beginnings of the Public Health Movement in the United States," Bulletin of the History of Medicine, May-June 1947, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 352-376; Medicine in Kentucky by John H. Ellis.
See Betha M. Thomas on p. 1161 in Caron's Directory of the City of Louisville for 1911; see Bertha M. Thomas in "Louisville area deaths," The Courier-Journal, 03/21/1985, p. 6; "Fifty Years of Negro Public Health" by S. B. Jones, M. D. in The Negro's Progress in Fifty Years: the annals, vol. XLIX, September 1913, pp. 138-146; "Tuberculosis car itinerary given out," The Lexington Herald, 07/16/1913, p. 2; "Negro defends race," The Courier-Journal, 11/19/1913, p. 3; "The Colored citizens," The Public Ledger, 03/10/1914, p. 2, and 03/18/1914, p. 3; "Nurse for Colored tuberculosis patients," Henderson Gleaner, 04/11/1914, p. 5; "State health nurses' association organized," The Bourbon News, 02/02/1917, p. 8; "Public Health Society is aim," The Courier-Journal, 02/18/1919, p. 5; "Health experts to address Woman's Club here May 13," The Courier-Journal, 05/11/1919, p. 9; "Ups and downs for 365 days - bitter and sweet," The Courier-Journal, Section 3, 12/28/1919, p. 3; "13 Conventions are scheduled for May," The Courier-Journal, 04/27/1920, p. 7.
"Conventions opening today," The Winfield Daily Courier [Kansas], 05/02/1921, p. 7; "Colored Baby Clinic at Health Center," Gleaner, 06/30/1922, p. 3; "Health conference for city's colored babies," The Paducah Evening Sun, 08/18/1923, p. 5; "Colored child health clinic," The Daily Bulletin, 10/19/1923, p. 4; "An effort to decrease ...," The Cincinnati Post, 09/03/1925, Second News Section, p. 1; "Negro health clinic held," The Lexington Leader, 04/01/1926, p. 14; "Health Week for Negroes," The Lexington Leader, 04/04/1926, 4th Section, p.4; "Committees of 1926 are named," The Lexington Herald, 05/16/1926, p.10; "Census of public health nursing," Table 28. Negro Public Health Nurses, in The Public Health Nurse, vol. 18, pp.311-313, May 1926. Online at Google Books; "Following the discovery last week ...," The Courier-Journal, 08/11/1928, p. 3; "Colored health clinic," Paducah News=Democrat Evening Sun, 06/02/1929, p. 4; "Colored child health clinic," The Ashland Daily Independent, 06/07/1926, p. 3; "Colored child health clinic," Jessamine Journal, 06/21/1929, p. 2.
"Vaccination clinic at Health Center," The Sun-Democrat, 09/28/1930, p. 6; Stanley Rayfield, "A Study of Negro public health nursing," The Public Health Nurse, vol. 22, October 1930, pp. 525-536. Abstract in the American Journal of Nursing, pp. 1577-1578; "Child Health Day is observed in schools," The Pineville Sun, 05/07/1931, front page; "$90,643 Paid on PWA contracts," The Lexington Herald, 08/14/1934, front page; "Will form Colored Public Health Council," The Daily Providence Enterprise, 11/05/1936, front page; "Colored children's health clinic set for this afternoon," The Ashland Daily Independent, 11/19/1936, p. 8; see Dr. Perry D. Robinson in Polk's Lexington (Fayette County, Ky.) City Directory, 1937, p. 489; "Colored Red Cross nurses," Sunday Gleaner and Journal, 02/28/1937, p. 9; "County nurse's report is given," The Winchester Sun, 05/10/1938, front page; "400 Treated at venereal disease clinic, Lexington Herald, 01/14/1939, p. 3; "Good cause for celebration," The Courier-Journal, 09/28/1940, p. 6; "Clinic is held at Kendall Home," The Messenger, 12/06/1940, p. 11.
"Public health nurse at institute: designed to aid students in work," The Post (Covington), 11/06/1941, p. 2; "Civilian Defense groups are named," The Central Record, 12/25/1941, front page; "Waverly Negro wing a satisfying addition," The Courier-Journal, 08/27/1942, p. 6; "Negro health," The State Journal, 01/14/1943, p. 2; "Negro public health nurse starts 35th year 'as usual'," The Courier-Journal, 04/29/1945, p. 12; "Crowding is causing disease, official says," The Courier-Journal, 04/25/1947, p. 20; "3 Workers aid Negroes in Henderson," The Courier-Journal, 12/05/1948, Section 5, p. 7; "The 1946 Census of Public Health Nurses" in National Negro Health News, vol. 14, October-December 1946, no. 4, pp. 16-18. Online at Google Books; "Public health workers to form association," The Lexington Leader, 08/11/1948, p. 2; "Kentucky Public Health Association to hold first annual meeting," The Cave City Progress, 02/25/1949, p. 8.
Health, Civilization and the State: a history of public health from ancient to modern times by Dorothy Porter; American Public Health Association history; "Segregation in Healthcare," January 2023, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. E1-87. Full issue pdf online at AMA Journal of Ethics webpage; R. A. Hahna, B. I. Trumanb, D. R. Williams. "Civil rights as determinants of public health and racial and ethnic health equity: Health care, education, employment, and housing in the United States," SSM Population Health, April 2018, 4: 17–24 (Online at National Library of Medicine); see Perry D. Robinson, Jr.'s Kentucky death certificate and Fayette County census records in Ancestry; Paul Braff, "Moving from the National Negro Health Week to the National Public Health Week in the United States," American Journal of Public Health, 2020 April, 110 (4): 470–477. Published online 2020 April. (Online); Baptiste, Diana-Lyn et al., "Hidden figures of nursing: The historical contributions of Black nurses and a narrative for those who are unnamed, undocumented and underrepresented," Wiley Online Library (editorial), 02/10/2021, pp. 1627-1632, free access online .pdf; Kentucky Minority Health Status Report 2021 by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (online); The history of African Americans and organized medicine, 02/02/2024, [American Medical Association] AMA webpage article (online); Samantha Artiga, Latoya Hill, and Marley Presiado. "How present-day health disparities for Black people are linked to past policies and events," KFF, 02/22/2024, (online).