As a social historian specializing in community studies, I am often asked to do media interviews after catastrophes or significant accidents. These tragedies can profoundly impact the social, economic, and historical fabric, altering lives, historic buildings, landmarks, and artifacts.
Mike Dixon TV interview on Station WJZ in Baltimore
This was the case this week. After a three-alarm fire destroyed a 170-year-old hotel in Elkton on Sunday, May 21, 2023. WJZ-TV Baltimore asked me to provide context around the landmark’s story, discuss how things have changed over the centuries, and comment on the impact of the destructive fire for the interview.
Once located on the main thoroughfare between Philadelphia and Baltimore, the Howard Hotel was an anchor in downtown Elkton for generations. It was a popular destination for travelers, families, and locals- a gathering place for generations.
The Northeastern Maryland landmark bustled with activity as waitresses served fine meals, bartenders dispensed drinks, and overnight guests booked comfortable rooms. This was long before Interstates and dual highways bypassed the town center, and hotel chains sprouted up along those new roads. In that earlier age, traveling salesmen, families making their way up or down the east coast, and others passing this way came right down Elkton’s Main Street, formerly Route 40.
The Howard Hotel was more than just a place to stay. It was a gathering place for the town. People met here for celebrations and to catch up with friends and neighbors.
Now a place that has anchored downtown since before the Civil War and prospered under the guidance of generations of hotelkeepers and tavern owners is gone.
In the 1920s, traffic flows through downtown Elkton on the Philadelphia Road. The Howard Hotel is in the background. (Source: Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia)
I am researching the struggle for equality in healthcare, a lesser-known dimension of the civil rights movement. Although the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to “separate but equal” in public schools in 1954, segregation persisted for years in medicine. However, by the mid-1960s, a combination of protests, federal legislation, and judicial rulings had significantly disrupted the Jim Crow practices that had long plagued hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics.1
As I delve into this complex and multifaceted intersection of civil rights and medicine, one area I am concentrating on is the integration of Delaware nursing schools, a significant achievement for the civil rights movement. During the 1950s, nursing schools commonly practiced segregation, limiting opportunities to pursue careers in the caring professions and make meaningful contributions to their communities.
Delaware Schools
Delaware Nursing School (undated, Wilmington Free Library)
In 1950, Delaware had seven nursing schools--four in Wilmington, one in New Castle County, and two downstate. These programs excluded Blacks leading to a severe shortage of professional African American nurses in the state.2
The National League of Nursing Education produced this 1950 list:
Delaware State, Farnhurst, established in 1929, 13 students
Beebe, Lewes, 1921, 10 students;
Milford Memorial, 1926, 21 students;
Delaware, Wilmington, 1897, 160 students;
Memorial, Wilmington, 1888, 92 students;
St. Francis, Wilmington, 1924, 66 students;
Wilmington General, Wilmington, 1910, 50 Students
To gain insight into nursing schools in the City, I am examining records of three Wilmington hospitals. The materials archived at the Lewis B. Flinn Medical Library at Christiana Care offer valuable insight into the policies, practices, and enrollment of these institutions during the mid-20th century.
In 1954, a significant civil rights healthcare milestone occurred in Delaware. Late that year, Wilmington Memorial Hospital Superintendent, Grace L. Little, announced a groundbreaking decision to open admission to the school for qualified candidates regardless of race. This decision marked a significant turning point in the fight for integrated medical education in Delaware, overturning in one institution the discriminatory policies that had long excluded Black students from the program.3
In the fall of 1955, when a new class began at Memorial Hospital, two African American students, Ive Brown of Felton and Carrie Thomas of Chester, PA, proudly stood alongside their classmates for the annual “probie” photo.4,5
A Civil Rights Healthcare Milestone
For the first time, African American students were admitted to a registered nurses training program in Delaware. When the hospital held its 65th graduation in 1958, Carrie Thomas and fifteen other young women had completed the course of study for registered nurses. Ive Brown graduated from a one-year practical nursing course at Brown Vocational High School.6.
This milestone, a significant step forward in the struggle for equality in healthcare, contributed to Delaware’s civil rights movement. My work on other dimensions of the civil rights struggle in medicine continues in Delaware.
1955 of the “probies” of the class of 19587 (Source: Medial Library, Christiana Care)
For additional photos on integrating nursing schools in Delaware, see this album on Facebook.
National League of Nursing Education, “State-Approved Schools of Nursing: Schools Meeting Minimum Requirements Set by Law and Board Rules in the Various States and Territories, (New York), 1950[↩]
Hospital to Accept Nursing Students Regardless of Race,” Morning News, December 7, 1954[↩]
“32 Student Nurses Start Memorial Class, Journal-Every Evening, September 7, 1955[↩]
“Probie Class Photo,” 1958, Wilmington Memorial Hospital[↩]
“15 Graduate at Memorial,” Morning News, September 4, 1958[↩]
Memorial Hospital, Probies-Class of 1958, photograph (Wilmington, DE, 1955), Lewis B. FlInn Medical Library, Christiana Care, Newark, DE.[↩]
