Movement Before the Movement: Black Hospitals in Kansas City, 1890-1940

Abstract

In the 1890s, Black physicians from the South began to move West due to westward expansion and Black population growth. The Black population in the Greater Kansas City Area expanded, creating the need for Black physicians and medical facilities. Segregation prevented Black physicians from treating white patients, and Black patients were barred from receiving medical care at public health facilities. In response, Black physicians, philanthropists, and communities in the Greater Kansas City Area began to establish Black medical facilities. They created these facilities to address two main problems: (1) Black physicians and nurses needed a space to practice their profession and hone their skills, and (2) Black patients needed access to modern medical treatment, free from judgment and racial prejudice. Black physicians established these hospitals as early as 1898, and the Black communities in the area supported them throughout the twentieth century. This paper argues that community grassroots organizing, and support of these hospitals resulted in a parallel medical profession in the Greater Kansas City Area. Nurses, churches, women’s organizations, auxiliaries, and philanthropists all played an integral role in developing the Black medical profession in the West.