The Creation of a Model Pediatric Ward for African American Children in 1920s Kansas City

* Abbreviations: CMH — : Children’s Mercy Hospital WPH — : Wheatley-Provident Hospital The summer of 1919 is remembered for some of the worst race riots in American history. Dubbed the Red Summer by James Weldon Johnson, at least 25 major riots rocked American cities, and more than 52 African Americans were lynched.1 Although provocations varied, a root cause of the racial tension was the disappointment felt by African American World War I veterans. They had hoped that their military service would earn them equality at home. Instead they returned to a society where the majority of American states enforced Jim Crow racial segregation laws. As in many American cities, Kansas City hospitals, including Children’s Mercy Hospital (CMH), were racially segregated in the early 20th century. African Americans went to the “Negro hospitals,” where facilities were substandard and overcrowded.2 The mortality rate for Kansas City’s black population was nearly double that of the country’s.3 Children fared no better: the black infant mortality rate was close to double that of whites. Common causes of child death were prematurity, diarrhea, and pneumonia.4,5 Conditions were worsened by limited numbers of black physicians. The 1910 Flexner report prompted the closure of all but 2 African American medical schools, Howard University and Meharry Medical College. Although Flexner recommended coeducation for men and women, he accepted racial segregation in medical schools. Furthermore, education gaps between black and white physicians were widened when he recommended that black physicians be trained differently at a more basic level as “sanitarians” with an emphasis on “serving” their people.6,7 The overall effect was to reinforce segregated and unequal medical training, thereby limiting education and practice opportunities for African Americans.7 It was in this climate that physicians Katharine Berry Richardson and John Edward Perry … Address correspondence to Jane F. Knapp, MD, Children’s Mercy Hospital, 2401 Gillham Rd, Kansas City, MO 64108. E-mail: jknapp{at}cmh.edu