SEARCHING FOR HEALTH CARE EQUITY IN RICHMOND

For the Glory of Richmond and the Furtherance of Strong Inter-Racial Friendship

Richmond in the racially divided Jim Crow era was like many American cities in which Black people could not find good health care in White hospitals. The Richmond Community Hospital Campaign, led by Maggie Walker, the first African American woman to charter a bank and the first African American woman to serve as a bank president, was started in 1927 to build the hospital. It's interesting to note that appeals for donations were made to Blacks and Whites alike and that it was fully endorsed by the Richmond Chamber of Commerce.

From The Richmond Hospital Campaign, St. Luke Press, Richmond, 1927, provided to the Library of Virginia courtesy of Seldon Richardson

The campaign asked for $100,000 from Blacks and $100,000 from Whites. A Richmond Times Dispatch ad run Sunday, July 10th, 1927, says "For the Glory of Richmond and the Furtherance of Strong Inter-Racial Friendship." While attempting to provide much needed health care, it is also a tacit recognition of segregation. Pledges by Whites and Blacks fell short, delaying a full opening until 1934, two years after construction.

Richmond Times Dispatch Sun. July 10th, 1927 - Page 13

The hospital building at 1209 Overbrook Road, currently owned by VUU, is planned to be demolished in November in order to make way for a new residence building. The old building is still important to those born there and to the physicians who practiced there, as well as to the Frederick Douglass Court historic district community that lives nearby. VUU states that it intends to use the hospital façade and some of the bricks to commemorate the history of RCH.

In an editorial to the Richmond Free Press, Viola Baskerville, a Virginia lawyer and politician who served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1998 to 2005 and as Secretary of Administration in the Cabinet of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine from 2006 to 2010 writes:

"VUU, you can do better! Demolition deprives us all of a true understanding of our history and shows a callous disregard in honoring the struggles of our ancestors. The conservation of Black history should be a priority for everyone, especially those institutions under a HBCU banner. If Black institutions don’t preserve Black history, then we are lost."

Viola O. Baskerville, VUU, don’t destroy hospital that took the Black community decades to build, Richmond Free Press, 2/15/2024