- In the pre-Civil Rights era, discrimination and racial segregation ruled almost every aspect of African-American life, from education and housing to sports and entertainment, but most critically healthcare.

Starting in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, black-owned healthcare facilities began opening in Atlanta to provide safe and equitable care for black communities across the city.

The structures remain to this day.

Though no longer operating, the remnants of these black healthcare facilities still stand in the heart of the communities they once served.

Many Atlantans pass by these buildings without knowing their history, unaware of the countless lives saved because of them.

In this episode, we're gonna explore the histories of the William A. Harris and McLendon Hospital and notable healthcare pioneers that all impacted the history of African-American hospitals in Atlanta.

(upbeat orchestral music) ♪ Rise up, come awake of sleep ♪ ♪ Rise up, come out of the ground ♪ ♪ Rise up ♪ - [Dr.

Hobson] There's no better way to understand history other than immersing yourself in the actual places where it unfolded.

♪ We're gonna rise up ♪ - [Victoria] From the archives to the streets of Atlanta, join us as we uncover the hidden stories from Atlanta's past and how they impact today's future.

♪ Rise up, rise up ♪ ♪ Oh, rise up ♪ - [Noah] With every question and new discovery, we all leave our mark... (upbeat orchestral music) In "(Re)Defining History."

(relaxed guitar music) - [Narrator] This episode of "(Re)Defining History" is brought to you by the Rich's Foundation.

(upbeat guitar music) (upbeat funk music) - I'm on the way to the Atlanta History Center to meet with Dr.

Littleton, and I'm really excited to see what kind of physical items are in the archive that are gonna talk about black Atlanta's healthcare history.

I know that due to discrimination in healthcare, African-Americans faced devastating mortality rate disparities in the face of diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis, influenza and pneumonia.

In 1885, the death rate for black Atlantans was two and a half times greater than whites.

By the year 1900, the black death rate exceeded the white by 69%.

African American deaths accounted for 50% of the city's deaths while only accounting for 40% of its population.

Now, I really wanna know more about the conditions African-Americans were facing in Atlanta's healthcare system during the 1800s.

What was the city's response?

Who were the African-American medical professionals and what were the key healthcare facilities that filled the gaps to provide safe and quality care?

Hi, Dr.

Littleton.

- Hi, friend!

- How are you?

- [La'Neice] I'm great, how are you?

- So good, I'm so excited to be here.

- Yes, great to see you again, welcome back!

- Thanks, and okay, so I have been looking into African-American hospitals and healthcare in Atlanta, and, you know, early, if we're talking before the end of the Civil War, obviously, black people are enslaved, their healthcare is being handled privately by their owners, it is subpar, but what happens afterwards?

So, like, do we know kind of early Atlanta?

I mean, we don't even have any hospitals yet, right?

So I'm assuming that this story maybe starts with Grady, and Grady, Atlanta's first public hospital, I think opens 1892 and it's supposed to be for everybody, supposed to be for black and white Atlantans... - Supposed to be, yes.

- But how is that care for everybody?

- Well, first, I would say to your point about enslavement, that would've been, like, a private issue, you would've seen a lot more midwives, or as we would've called them, medicine men and women on plantations caring for enslaved people, we see the transition during the Reconstruction era into formalized hospital settings, and then, as we move more towards the 20th century, we see, again, a lot more private care, private clinics, private hospitals or doctors operating independently, making house calls.

- It's important to note the critical nature of medical care during this time period.

Between the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, America was facing a slew of health crises... (upbeat rock music) One that poor and marginalized groups bore the brunt of.

In fact, Southern cities in the U.S.

reported higher death rates, largely due to their higher populations of black residents who often lacked access to adequate medical care.

(upbeat rock music) In early Grady, at least what I've read, is the care for African-Americans is subpar, you know?

It's strictly segregated, so then, how does Atlanta's black community...?

Like, what do they start to form?

- Well, the facilities at Grady, much like the times, were separate but unequal.

(upbeat orchestral music) So we see Grady open as a facility for everyone, but of course, the black side of Grady was no comparison to the white side, in fact, citizens used to call it the Gradys, as if there was two, so there was white Grady and black Grady, black Grady was not able to properly care for black citizens, there were not enough beds... (upbeat orchestral music) There were no black physicians, and so... - Oh, really?

So even black Grady had only white physicians.

- [La'Neice] Only white physicians, yes.

- [Victoria] Wow, okay.

- Up until 1958.

- Okay, and we're gonna talk about that.

- Yes.

- What then are we looking at here?

These are plans?

- These are the architectural drawings for the New Negro Hospital, as it was called at the time, later called Hughes Spalding.

- Wow.

- Yes, so here, we see a couple of different drawings, we see this kind of 3D imaging, kind of bird's-eye view of Hughes Spalding.

(relaxed piano music) - This was all gonna be for black Atlantans.

- This was all going to be in for black Atlantans.

- And this had to be revolutionary, I mean... - Yes, absolutely.

- Yeah, and who... You were saying a woman... - [La'Neice] Grace Towns Hamilton, yes.

- [Victoria] Grace Towns Hamilton, yeah, she does everything.

(laughs) - [La'Neice] She does everything.

- [Victoria] First black woman, right?

In the... - Elected to the Georgia State Legislator, but before she was doing all of that, she was making massive changes in Atlanta through the Atlanta Urban League, so the creation of a hospital for African-American citizens, a public hospital was a top priority for her.

Prior to this, hospitals in Atlanta, to your point earlier, were private, right?

So you have private black hospitals, you have a lot of private care, medical care that's going on, but Grace Towns Hamilton was advocating for a public black hospital, and what we see here is the result of her efforts and her advocacy, so we see this 3D drawing here, which shows us all the different floors - [Victoria] "Negro Hospital," I mean, that's what they were calling it.

- [La'Neice] Yes.

- Wow, so when does this open?

- [La'Neice] It opens in 1952.

- '52... It is sad that it takes until the 1950s to have their own dedicated building just to get what, again, tax-paying citizens of Atlanta should have had from the 1890s.

- This first photo we have here is actually Dr.

Benjamin Elijah Mays speaking at the opening of the facility, talking about how this was a great leap for the city of Atlanta to create this public hospital.

(relaxed string music) - Before this, though, they're doing private hospitals, and we've talked about this, there are... You know, early, early, you had these tiny hospitals attached to Morris Brown or, you know... (indistinct) But outside of an academic institution, we're talking about Harris Hospital and McLendon Hospital, and so, Harris... William A. Harris Hospital is 1928, so it's really early, but it's really tiny... - It's really tiny.

- And it's for... I try to put it, upper-middle-class black Atlantans, so you have to have the money to be able to go there, and McLendon, I think you have some things on McLendon.

- Yes, I do.

- Okay.

I'm excited 'cause... And McLendon's later.

- Yes, let's slide over here.

So McLendon is an extraordinary hospital, an extraordinary story.

In 1947, the Atlanta Urban League did a study on medical facilities for black Atlantans and found that for the 70,000 to 90,000 black citizens, there were only 37 doctors... (relaxed percussive music) - In the whole city.

- In the whole city.

- Wow.

- So it's impossible to care for that number of people with that few amount of doctors, so Dr.

F. E. McLendon opened McLendon Hospital in 1946, so here, we have the Atlanta City directory from 1947 that lists McLendon Medical Clinic.

- Oh, yeah.

- It's operated by Dr.

F. E. McLendon, president, and Mrs.

Bennie B. McLendon, his wife.

(relaxed orchestral music) So we see it listed here at 1370 Sharon... (relaxed orchestral music) NW, so that's significant because it opened in one building, one structure with a flat roof, but Dr.

McLendon had vision because he knew that he was going to expand and put another floor, but he actually, over time, expanded to three different buildings, so it was very much like a medical complex... - Center, yeah.

- In the middle of a neighborhood.

- And it is in a neighborhood, I mean, I'm gonna go later to check that out, hopefully, and see it 'cause it's... I don't think people realize it's a residential area, and you had, really, a medical... Really, a clinic, I mean, medical clinic.

- He was a pivotal figure in his community for the amount of medical care that he was able to deliver over that 30-year timeframe.

- That's incredible.

So I can see why this is such a big deal because everything I've read about early health statistics, for black Atlantans especially, was so dire, I mean, in the 1880s, I think it was the black death rate exceeded white by 69%, and then, in the 1900s, it's 45% of black babies aren't seeing their first birthday and they're dying from preventable diseases like water-based bacteria stuff.

- Mm-hmm.

You see an increase in tuberculosis, which is what a lot of black club women were trying to advocate for in early Atlanta, trying to alleviate the pressures that the community was suffering from, you also see high rates of what they were calling venereal diseases, or we would commonly call sexually-transmitted infections, so there was a need.

- So who is practicing medicine here?

Are they black doctors and black nurses?

- In 1958, Dr.

Asa Yancey, who we see here was the first African-American physician at Grady, this newspaper clipping is actually from 1958 when he takes his post.

- So we have six years until we get a first black physician.

- Yes, but we do have black nurses.

- Wow.

Okay.

- [La'Neice] Yes.

- [Victoria] That's amazing, I mean, that's still so... He is the first black physician.

- And was a surgeon, brilliant surgeon from Atlanta.

Once Grady desegregates in 1965, you see an increase in black physicians that began practicing in the city.

- Oh, I see.

This article here is from 1981 and talks about how Hughes Spalding Pavilion, the black hospital, was on its last leg because of integration, yes.

- And so, what happens to this Hughes Spalding?

- Hughes Spalding, in the early '80s, makes the transition to include pediatric care, and by the late '80s, early '90s, it becomes no longer an African-American hospital, but a children's hospital.

(relaxed percussive music) - Well, this was so amazing and so helpful, and I am gonna go out 'cause I really wanna see the locations of these early black hospitals, especially being in neighborhoods, so I just can't thank you enough, Dr.

Littleton, it was so good to see you.

- [La'Neice] Yes, thank you, friend, it's good to see you!

- See you next time.

- See ya.

(upbeat orchestral music) - It was amazing to see those things in the archives with Dr.

Littleton, and I really wanna go out in the neighborhood and look at the William A. Harris Hospital, look at the McLendon Hospital buildings, especially how we talked about how they're in the community and they were made for that community, I wanna see what they look like in their environments.

We're standing at the site of the William A. Harris Memorial Hospital, and this is really the brainchild of a woman named Sadie Harris.

She trains as a nurse, she returns to Atlanta and she gets married to a surgeon named Charles Powell in 1918, and together in 1928, they open this hospital, they named it after her father, which is why it's the William A. Harris Hospital, and it becomes one of the first private black hospitals in Atlanta that is not connected to a university or our college.

(gentle guitar music) And this is such an incredible space because at that time, there is not many places that middle-class and upper-middle-class black Atlantans could receive healthcare, they were not gonna go to Grady, and so, this is a small building, it really doesn't look like a hospital from the outside, but it served this community for decades.

It's really special, at least for me, to stand in front of it, because I'm so connected to built environment and this small-looking red brick building that doesn't look like much is a place where so many people in Atlanta were born, surgeries were had here, people died here, it's connected to hundreds of Atlantans' lives in ways that we're not even aware of.

The hospital's location is so important because 50, 60, 70 years ago, this intersection was the epicenter of the black Atlanta of the West Side, so you had the Ashby Street Theater, Booker T. Washington High School's right there, Paschal's Restaurant is up the street, and the Powells lived right next-door to the hospital, so it was amazing that they lived in their community, they worked in their community, they served in their community, and for Charles Powell at least, 'cause he died a little early, he really died in this community as well.

(upbeat orchestral music) Now, I'm gonna go to the site of the McLendon Hospital... (upbeat orchestral music) At least the last remaining building from it.

(upbeat orchestral music) Dr.

McLendon actually lived facing Hunter Street, which is today, Martin Luther King Jr.

Drive, and then, the hospital was built between three buildings that faced behind his house.

(upbeat orchestral music) This was built in 1946, Dr.

Frederick Earl McLendon did this to serve a really underserved community.

Around 1945, 1946 in Atlanta, you had 100,000 black Atlantans that were too wealthy to receive care at Grady, right?

Grady is for indigent care, and they had about 44 beds between them, so there was such a need, it started off as a really small hospital, I think it was 7,000 square-feet, and by the time they had finally expanded, they were training doctors, so they were training African-American physicians and white physicians.

In this building, just like Harris, there are people born here, people having surgeries here, people dying here and so connected to the fabric of the community.

One of its more famous patients was Dr.

Benjamin E. Mays.

(relaxed electronic music) As we know, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made discrimination illegal, especially in public spaces and in programs funded by the federal government.

For many hospitals, however, this civil rights legislation meant little... (relaxed electronic music) And some remained segregated even after its passing.

(choir vocalizing) It wasn't until 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced Medicare and Medicaid that hospitals were really pushed to finally desegregate... (upbeat hip-hop music) Because if a hospital wanted Medicare funding, it had to fully integrate and start treating the black patients it had once turned away.

So after 1965, we see a significant shift.

More hospitals integrating and more black patients receiving care in these once segregated institutions, but integration also brought another change, the closure of many black-founded hospitals.

(gentle piano music) So what was the experience like for those black physicians stepping into these newly-integrated spaces?

I am going to go visit with Dr.

James F. Densler, who's the first African-American pediatric surgeon to practice in the United States, and I'm gonna learn about his experience in the field during this time of change and progress.

(door knocking) Hi, Dr.

Densler, it's so nice to meet you, thank you for having me to get to talk to you.

- Very good to have you here.

- And I'm gonna just start at the beginning, which is where you're born.

- I was born in Savannah, Georgia, July the 3rd, 1932.

- When did you know at least you wanted to be a doctor?

Was there a point in your life?

- Well, I kinda had some inklings of it, one time, my mama injured her ankle and one of the treatments was soaking it in potassium permanganate, which is a purple-colored chemical, and I helped with soaking that and I... (indistinct) - Just liked it, didn't gross you out.

(laughs) So was this as a little boy that that happened?

- That's right, that's right.

- [Victoria] Your undergraduate degree was for biology, right?

You went pre-med.

- [James] Yes, pre-med.

- So you went into college out of high school knowing that that's what you wanted to do.

- That's right, that's right, for me, but a lot of people went into pre-med and a lot of my teachers in physics, and chemistry, and things like that were pre-med students who didn't have the money or aptitude or something like that, so they didn't go, and my sisters... I had three sisters and one brother, and all of them were teachers, and so, they told me, "Although you're going to pre-med at Savannah State, take some education courses too so you'd have..." - Something to fall back on, maybe.

- Something to fall back on.

- Because was this a time where...?

Did you know any black doctors?

I mean, did you...?

- Yes.

In fact, you know, it's... I didn't know any white doctors.

When I graduated, I couldn't find a job.

- [Victoria] Oh, okay.

(laughs) What were you trying to find a job in when you first graduated?

- Well, I thought I could maybe do something at the hospital or something like that, so I applied for a teacher's certificate and I got a job there.

It was Moses Jackson Elementary School and I think I had the sixth or seventh grade, and it was about 24 teachers there and I was the only male teacher.

- Really?

What made you go to medical school?

Like, what changed?

- Well, I got a draft notice, I was a medical corpsman, and what a medical corpsman does is two phases, sometimes, you're a medical corpsman that works in the hospital and... (indistinct) Taking care of people in the hospital, in the emergency room, different things like that, and then, you have the combat medic, so we had to go through training for combat medics and for hospital medics.

- Oh, wow, so it's not until after you leave the military that you go to medical school.

- [James] That's right.

- So you went to Meharry... - That's right.

- And is that where you decided you wanna do surgery?

- Yes, that's when I decided I'd do surgery, and the motivation was a doctor, Matthew Walker, who was a outstanding surgeon there, and he kinda took us under his wing and taught me so much, so I wanted to be a surgeon, so Matthew Walker, who had several residents and he would make the residents teach us certain things in physiology and surgery and things like that, and one of the residents was a guy named Warner Middles, he was a first-year, I think, resident when I was a student, and he taught me a lot of things and when he said, "I'm going to Atlanta to open my practice," and I said, "Good," so he said, "Call me back one day," he said, "When you finish up, if you're interested in coming, we could use you down here in Atlanta."

- Okay.

Now, did you specify in a type of the... Part of the body, or when you're a surgeon, you do anything?

I don't know how that works.

- Well, now, you know, you got vascular surgeons, thoracic surgeons... - [Victoria] What kind are you?

- I'm a pediatric surgeon, and there are certain things, neuro cases, I don't do those, and... Mostly abdominal and chest.

- Did you ever experience, though, any kind of pushback from a white patient to have a black doctor?

- Yeah, I know... I've gotten pushback from a black patient.

- Really?

Now, is this up North, in the South or does it matter where?

- Well, I've seen it more in the South.

- Really?

That's so fascinating, though, so you were getting pushback from a black patient to have a black doctor?

- Oh, yeah.

- Because... You think just because they grew up not seeing that or maybe not enough expectation?

- Yeah, when somebody, you know, says, you know, that somebody got more experience than... - [Victoria] Wow.

- I've had cases where I was a senior resident and I couldn't get the black doctor... The black patient to do what I said, I sent... - A white junior... (indistinct) - It would be all right.

- [Victoria] So when you got to Atlanta, it was 1969, you said... - [James] '69, that's right.

- And in private practice, now, did you do anything at Hughes Spalding?

- Yeah, I did work at Hughes Spalding also.

- Now, did you ever work or interact with Dr.

Yancey?

- Oh, yes.

- [Victoria] Oh, my gosh.

- Yes, Dr.

Yancey and I, in fact, he was... At Hughes Spalding, he was, I think, the leader of Hughes Spalding when I got there, he requires a lot of respect and gratitude for what he did.

He started a training program at Tuskegee for African-American surgeons and he started a program at Hughes Spalding for African-Americans.

- When you got to Atlanta in that era, was there a lot of still health discrepancies between black and white Atlanta that you noticed?

- Oh, yeah, sure, and a lot of that's financial too.

- So there's a different class, at least of black people in Atlanta.

- They could afford to go to the doctor and that was important.

- Well, I wanna take a look in this book here because there were some really incredible things.

Tell me your national recognition of being the first African-American pediatric surgeon in the United States, and how did you get recognized for that?

- Well, when the American Pediatric Surgical Association, I think it's named, was getting ready for their 50th anniversary, they started writing articles and... - Wow.

(relaxed piano music) (relaxed piano music continues) This book is especially amazing to see your whole life story and all of the challenges and adventures, and it has just been such a pleasure to speak with you.

- All right.

- And I really appreciate it.

Dr.

James F. Densler becoming the nation's first practicing African-American pediatric surgeon in 1969 marked a major milestone in medical history, and the fact that he worked alongside Dr.

Yancey, the first African-American physician on staff at Grady Memorial Hospital, makes this even a greater full-circle moment.

I believe that their achievements not only paved the way for future black medical professionals, but also advanced the fight for equitable healthcare and representation for African-American patients as well.

So while there's still these health disparities today, I think there's so much more awareness and we have the history to look at, we have stories like Dr.

Densler's story and you have physicians now that maybe choose to work at a public hospital, choose to train and talk about medical biases and try to make these facilities even better than they can be.

(upbeat orchestral music) From the late 1800s to today, the impact of these African-American hospitals and healthcare providers can still be seen and felt throughout the city.

Countless of generations of lives have been saved and transformed because of the resiliency and determination of black hospitals and doctors, and as we continue to look into these stories of the William A. Harris Hospital and McLendon Hospital, I really hope that this sparks a deeper conversation about the ongoing need for representation in medicine, because after all, the fight for equality in healthcare is not a chapter written in history, it is a living, breathing story that's still happening today.

(dramatic whooshing) (relaxed guitar music) (relaxed guitar music continues) (relaxed guitar music continues) (bright orchestral music) - [Narrator] This episode of "(Re)Defining History" is brought to you by the Rich's Foundation.

(upbeat guitar music) (dramatic whooshing) - [Narrator] WABE.

(bright electronic music)