The Long Fight for Civil Rights in Healthcare and Medicine

Fighting Jim Crow Discrimination and Segregation in Health Care examines the experiences of African Americans before the passage of modern Civil Rights legislation in the mid-1960s. By highlighting this little-known history within the context of Delmarva and the broader region, I aim to shed light on the contributions of African American doctors, nurses, and caregivers and the advances made within the Black hospital system. This program will explore activists’ struggles in their fight against racism and their relentless pursuit of equality in medicine and health.

African American Nurses at Camp Sherman, Ohio, around 1918 (Source: National Women’s History Museum)