The changed conditions of modern life have occasioned a wholly new order
of things for the care of the sick and disabled; and well equipped
hospitals with training schools for nurses are now numerous, where they
were almost unknown fifty years ago. This has led to the institution of
hospitals for the colored people. These have been very necessary for the
colored people, and also for the colored physicians and surgeons. There
are now several thousand of these physicians and surgeons who have
received diplomas in the regular medical schools and are practicing
their profession among their own people. These, however, are not usually
admitted to practice in the general hospitals of the Southern States,
which is a serious hindrance to their progress in knowledge and skill,
as well as a great embarrassment in the care of their patients. There
has been a growing demand also for colored nurses with the training that
can be acquired only in hospitals. Thus for more reasons than one,
hospitals designed particularly for the colored people have become
necessary.
The first of these was founded at Hampton, Va., in 1891, by Miss Alice
M. Bacon, who was at that time connected with Hampton Institute, though
her hospital was independent and bore the name of “Dixie.” In the same
year the “MacVicar Hospital,” was established as a feature of Spelman
Seminary in Atlanta, and the “Provident Hospital” was instituted in
Chicago. Three years later, in 1894, the “Freedmen’s Hospital” was
started in Washington and the “Lamar Hospital” in Augusta, Ga. Then, in
1895, came the “Frederick Douglass” in Philadelphia; in 1896, the “Sarah
Goodrich” in New Orleans; and in 1897, the “Hospital and Training School
for Nurses” in Charleston. Others have followed, one by one, in other
important centres; Charlotte, Richmond, Columbia, Savannah,
Jacksonville, Nashville, Knoxville, Louisville, Raleigh, Tuskegee,
Durham, Atlanta and elsewhere. In all of these hospitals the training
school for nurses is a conspicuous feature, and the nurses who receive
this training show very great efficiency, finding employment largely
among the white people, who frequently prefer them to white nurses with
similar training. Some of these institutions have been built up by the
sheer enterprise of individual colored physicians. A notable example of
this is “St. Luke’s Hospital” at Columbia, founded and maintained in the
face of many discouragements by Dr. Matilda A. Evans, who received her
education at Schofield Institute, Oberlin College, and the Woman’s
Medical College of Pennsylvania. Hospitals of this type are held in high
esteem by the communities in which they are located, and are centers of
beneficence for the country around.