Hospital Discrimination in Detroit in the 1950s
Special Exhibit originally created in 1995
by Renee McKinney and Nicholas Scalera
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| This exhibit was originally created in 1995 by Renee McKinney and Nicholas Scalera for
the University of Michigan Historical Center for the Health Sciences and funded by the
University of Michigan Hospitals. A graphics update was completed in 6/96. |
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Detroit
Urban League Health Clinic
ca.1945 |
[Photograph courtesy of
the Bentley Historical Library
University of Michigan] |
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Racial Segregation of Hospital Bed Assignments
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| Until the mid-1960s, most of Detroit's white-owned hospitals practiced segregation by
assigning patients into separate wards based on race. This diagram illustrates the
segregated fourth floor ward of Detroit Memorial Hospital in 1959. The diagram was
produced by the Detroit Urban League and the NAACP and sent to the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare to protest the planned distribution of Federal grant funds to a
hospital engaging in discriminatory practices. |
DIAGRAM OF FOURTH FLOOR OF DETROIT MEMORIAL HOSPITAL WHERE NEGRO
PATIENTS ARE CONCENTRATED
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Detroit Urban League Collection, Box 43, Hospital and Medical Center
Studies, 1959, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. File size of full image
= 45K |
| The official response to this protest, delivered by Assistant Surgeon
General Jack C. Haldeman, revealed the institutional barriers Detroit African Americans
faced at this time in their fight against discriminatory hospital practices. In his
letter, Haldeman refutes the NAACP's protest on the grounds that there was no evidence
presented that the hospital denied admission to any patients based on race, and
that the Federal government could not interfere with the internal administration (i.e.
assigning of beds) of the hospital. |
 
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Detroit Urban League Collection, Box 43, Hospital and Medical Center
Studies, 1959, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. File size of full-sized
images = 100K; 40K |
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African American Activism Against Hospital
Discrimination
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| Throughout the period from the Great Migration of the World War I era to the 1960s,
Detroit-area African Americans actively challenged the discriminatory practices and
segregationist attitudes that characterized the Detroit medical establishment. Although
organizations such as the Detroit Urban League and the NAACP generally led the way in
focusing the African American community's protests against discrimination in health care,
spontaneous, grass-roots efforts by individuals and groups of African Americans were
widespread and frequent. One example of such an effort is displayed in this 1952 report
written by the Women's Committee to End Discrimination in the Medical Services. |
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| A REPORT ON MEDICAL DISCRIMINATION IN THE CITY OF DETROIT 1952 report written by the
Women's Committee to End Discrimination in the Medical Services. |
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Detroit Urban League Collection, Box 42, Hospital and Medical Center
Studies, 1951-1952, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. File size of
full-sized images = 80K; 350K. |
| THE NEGRO PATIENT'S LIFE IS JEOPARDIZED BY DISCRIMINATION. This report, produced
through research of public records and interviews, drew a connection between
discrimination in hospital services and the proportionately higher mortality rates of
Detroit African Americans due to tuberculosis and other public health diseases when
compared with the total population. This document is a chart listing the the number of
beds allocated for Negroes at various Detroit-area hospitals and the number of black
physicians employed by each. |
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HOSPITAL DISCRIMINATION IN DETROIT REFLECTED IN HIGHER DEATH RATE AMONG NEGROES
This document presents statistics on the death rates of Detroit African Americans versus
white Detroit residents. It includes the first of several case histories contained in the
report. These case histories describe examples of segregationist policies practiced by
Detroit hospitals. |
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Detroit Urban League Collection, Box 42, Hospital and Medical Center
Studies, 1951-1952, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. File size of
full-sized images = 200K; 300K |
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Kellogg African American Health Care Project
Sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Michigan |
Copyright
©, Kellogg African American Health Care Project, 2000.
Text and images may not be used without the permission of the Kellogg African American
Health Care Project. |
For information regarding reproduction permission please write: Kellogg African
American Health Care Project, University of Michigan, 300 N. Ingalls Building, RM 3D019,
Box 0489, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109-0489; or phone (734) 647-6918.
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