There were exceptions with nursing programs. St. Mary's Hospital School of Nursing in Clarksburg trained black and white women and men from 1905 -1969. The students were trained and educated by the hospital's nuns and physicians. Beatrice Ann Prince (Thomas) graduated from the Ohio Valley General Hospital School of Nursing in 1959, becoming the first African American graduate.


BRIEF HISTORY 

Black Hospitals in West Virginia

Lakin Hospital, in Mason County, opened in 1926,with a purpose of, "the reception and treatment of blacks suffering from mental and nervous disorders." The Lakin State Hospital was created under legislation proposed by T.G. Nutter, Harry Capehart and T.J. Coleman, three A-A legislators who created several state-funded reform institutions for African-Americans between 1919and 1921. The hospital, then named the 'Lakin State Hospital for the Colored Insane,' served patients from across the state. Although the institution's original name reflected the era of segregation, it was a nontraditional facility with an all black staff, including administrators, and was one of what is believed to be only two all African-American mental health facilities east of the Mississippi River. Dr. Mildred Mitchell-Bateman began her career at Lakin Hospital.

INTEGRATION IN HEALTHCARE & EDUCATION IN WV

West Virginia began dismantling system of segregated education in 1954, stating, ''all Negro pupils will be admitted and integrated this school year in the school located within their respective residential areas.'' West Virginia was quick to integrate compared to other southern states, but some schools and counties resisted and took longer to integrate than others. By the 1955-56 school year, despite some resistance and with the exception of Glenville State, all institutions of higher learning in West Virginia had enrolled African-American students. However, many hospitals, restaurants, hotels and pools refused to admit African-Americans.

A significant force in the move toward equality of access and opportunity was the creation of the West Virginia Human Rights Commission created in 1961. The Commission established 35 local community relations commissions to share information and discuss issues related to equality and racism. In 1966, the commission reported that ''blatant racial discrimination'' was over. That year, nearly all of the hospitals in the state had agreed to end discriminatory practices, due in large part to the work of the West Virginia Human Rights Commission.

Even so, racism within the profession remains. 2008 saw the American Medical Association (AMA) officially apologize, pledging, ". . . (the) AMA would do everything in our power to right the wrongs that were done by our organization to African-American physicians and their families and their patients."


JUST A FEW OF THE MANY WV HEALTHCARE GRADUATES AND PROFESSIONALS THROUGHOUT HISTORY!

BRIEF HISTORY

People of Color Working in West Virginia Hospitals

People of Color (POC) have served American communities as medical and health care professionals long before the 1964 Civil Rights Act desegregated education nationally. West Virginia's POC in health care have navigated their own path to become practitioners. Becoming a physician in the 19th - mid 20th century, required African-Americans to travel outside of West Virginia for their education.

Storer College in Harper's Ferry, Jefferson County, West Virginia began educating African- Americans in 1865. Though they didn't offer medical degrees, Storer College was a steppingstone for Ella P. Stewart (1893-1987), who studied education at Storer before becoming the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh pharmacy program, the first African-American female pharmacist in Pennsylvania and one of the first African-American female pharmacists in the country.

While gains were slowly being made in the education of POC, meeting the healthcare needs of this population was limited. Segregation throughout West Virginia determined where African-Americans could be seen and treated. Separate wings in "White Only" hospitals were built for African-Americans where treatment was given by white nurses. Hospitals for African-Americans did exist. They were primarily for specific infirmities; for example, tuberculosis, which was fatal, and institutions for mentally ill or developmentally challenged persons.

In 1917, the West Virginia Legislature established the West Virginia State Colored Tuberculosis Sanitarium for the care of Black TB patients in Denmar, WV.



COAL MINING & POC HEALTHCARE 

Starting in the late 19th and into the early 20th century, the genesis of modern rural primary care delivery was found in the West Virginia coalfields. There ''coal camp doctors'' provided needed care to miners and their families through pre-paid, per capita financing, a precursor to modern health-maintenance organization. These hospitals were segregated, and care was provided almost exclusively by white doctors and nurses.

Henry Floyd Gamble (1862 - 1932) was an African-American surgeon, obstetrician, physician and president of the National Medical Association from 1911 to 1912.Born in Virginia, he graduated with a M.D. in 1891 from Yale University and set up practice in Charlottesville, but relocated to Charleston, West Virginia in 1892. Gamble was elected president of the National Medical Association in 1911, and was the founder of the West Virginia state association. From 1922 onward Gamble focused on surgery, particularly for the local coal miners.

Photo Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dr._Henry_Floyd_Gamble.jpg 

Dr. Mildred Mitchell-Bateman, M.D.(1922- 2012) was an American physician and medical administrator. She was West Virginia's mental health commissioner in 1962, the first woman and African-American to hold the position. In 1973, she became the vice president of the American Psychiatric Association, the first African-American to do so. In 1977, then-President Jimmy Carter chose her to serve on his Commission on Mental Health, which led to the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980. 

Photo courtesy of West Virginia & Regional History Center, https://wvhistoryonview.org/catalog/027103 

Patrice Harris, MD is a psychiatrist from Atlanta. She earned her medical degree from West Virginia University in Morgantown in 1992. Dr. Harris became the first Black woman to lead the American Medical Association as president in 2019. Prior to her appointment, she served on the AMA's board of trustees since 2011, and was chair from 2016-17. Dr. Harris currently oversees the AMA's efforts around the opioid epidemic and has chaired the association's opioid taskforce since 2014.

Photo, https://www.patriceharrismd.com/ 

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