The Tuskegee Veterans Hospital and Its Black Physicians

Book excerpt: When the Tuskegee Veteran's Hospital opened in 1923, many in the Veteran's Bureau believed that black physicians and nurses were not competent to staff the facility. Except for nurses' aides, orderlies, attendants and laborers, hospital personnel would be white. Recruiting and training black medical professionals was difficult given the obstacles facing blacks in obtaining education in medicine and gaining acceptance in the field. The history of the hospital reflects the struggle for racial equality in the United States. This book describes the effort to integrate the Tuskegee Veteran's Hospital and follows the careers of the small group of well-trained, dedicated black physicians who played significant roles in its development as a treatment center for black veterans. The hospital's contributions to research and medicine are documented, along with its involvement in one of the biggest scandals in medical research--the Tuskegee syphilis study.