Month: May 2021

Jim Crow and the Spanish Flu

African American Nurses and the Spanish Flu
Nine African-American nurses at Camp Sherman (Base Hospital Ohio) during World War I fought the Spanish Flu; (W.E.B. Du Dois Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, Amherst Libraries, University of Massachusetts)

I have been asked to discuss the connections between Jim Crow and the Pandemic of 1918 for a program sponsored by the Harford Community College Civil Rights Project on May 13, 2021, at 4 p.m.

Here is more information on the program

JIM CROW AND THE SPANISH FLU – DEADLY CONNECTIONS

A Discussion about the 1918 pandemic & today Harford Community College, Harford Civil Rights Project

May 13, 2021, 4 – 5 pm

In an era when Jim Crow had a firm grip on the nation, the Spanish Influenza of 1918 swept across the country, devastating America’s Black communities. As people of color wrestled with that deadly novel virus 103-years-ago, they also struggled with segregation and discrimination, at a time when access to healthcare was scarce. Thus, as the world continues to cope with COVID-19 in 2021, we will discuss historical echoes connecting 1918 with today’s public health emergency from the African-American Community’s perspective.https://harford.presence.io/…/deadly-parallels-a…

Feb. 12, 1919, New York regiment returns home on Stockholm from World War I battlefield in France . — Some of the men of the 369th (15th N.Y.) who won the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action.” Left to right. Front row: Pvt. Ed Williams, Herbert Taylor, Pvt. Leon Fraitor, Pvt. Ralph Hawkins. Back Row: Sgt. H. D. Prinas, Sgt. Dan Strorms, Pvt. Joe Williams, Pvt. Alfred Hanley, and Cpl. T. W. Taylor. 1998 print. Records of the War Department General and Special. Staffs. (US National Archives
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/26431282)