Page 14 -The Chronicle, Saturday, February 24,1979
'Katie B.' Preceded by Slater Hospital
The first hospital oper
ated exclusively for blacks
in Winston-Salem was the
"Slater Hospital,” which
began sometime in 1901 or
1902.
The Slater Hospital was
the first effort at providing
health care facilities for
blacks and grew into the
Kate Bitting Reynolds Hos
pital, first built in 1938.
“Katie B.” as the later
hospital became known was
torn down and rebuilt in
1971 and is now operated as
the Reynolds Health Cen
ter.
Dr. Robert W. Prichard,
professor of pathology.
Bowman Gray School of
Medicine, has written a
history of the three black
hospitals which predates
the Revnolds Hospital in
the early 1900s, published
in the Journal of the Na
tional Medical Association.
Prichard writes that a
board of managers came
together on Nov. 11, 1899
to build and maintain a
hospital for the black com
munity of Winston-Salem.
The group included Si
mon Green Atkins, princi
pal of the then-Slater In
dustrial School, who was
charged with raising more
than $3,000 for the finan
cing of the hospital. Tobac
co magnate R. J. Reynolds
offered to match any sum
between $3,000 and $5,000
which Atkins could raise by
Jan. 1, 1901.
Reynolds’ deadline was
extended at least six
months and Atkins raised
$6,665, which Reynolds
matched.
Prichard writes that the
hospital presumably
opened by the time of the
next board meeting in May,
1902, because the meeting
was held in the hospital
building.
An advisory board of
three black physicians (Dr.
H. H. Hall, J. W. Jones and
Hargraves (first name un
known) and three white
physicians was appointed.
Miss Lula Hairston was
named the head nurse at a
salary of $300 per year.
Odell Clanton, who lived
in the Columbian Heights
neighborhood which Atkins
had founded, recalls the
hospital as a frame building
on the site of the current
Bickett Hall on the Win
ston-Salem State University
campus.
The hospital had habitual
funding problems. Booker
T. Washington, president
of Tuskegee Institute, vis
ited Winston (Winston and
Salem did not unite until
1913) to raise money for the
hospital in 1905.
A. J. Brown, named su
perintendent that year,
sought to reduce expenses
by planting a garden
around the hospital.
Dr. Hall and W. H. Bruce
sought to take over man
agement of the hospital. It
was leased to them, Atkins
and F. M. Kennedy in
1909.
However, they had not
much more success keeping
the hospital in the black.
By 1912, Kennedy, then
principal of Slater School,
had written to his board
that the hospital was no
longer being used. The
previously all-white Twin
City Hospital began admitt
ing black patients that year
to fill the gap left by the
closing of the Slater Hospi
tal.
Two more black hospitals
began operations in the
years before the opening of
the North Wing of the new
City Hospital in 1922. Dr. J.
C. Williamson had a hospi
tal at the comer of Var-
graves Street and Stadium
Drive. Williamson, once
principal of the Columbian
Heights Elementary
School, received a medical
Communities
from page 13
Park
from page 16
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quicker start than the YMCA, getting
established in its Chestnut Street loca
tion in 1918.
The first efforts to organize a YMCA
actually took place in 1911, but the Y did
not open until 1924. Founders present at
the Dec. 21, 1924 meeting were Atkins,
K. Howard, C. H. Jones, J.S. Fitts,
H.A. Wiseman, F.E. Vogler, F.K.
Bahnson, George W. Fisher, R.W.
Brown, J.H. Turner, F.M. Fitch, U.S.
Reynolds, Bishop L.W. Kyles, J.W.
Paisley, Wm. Wrice, J.D. Jones, J.W.
Jones, John A. Blume, G.W. Hill and
R.P. Neal.
The group took over the Depot Street
School until it burned down. In 1930, the
Y organized basketball leagues to
popularize the sport. In 1934, new
quarters at 410 North Church Street
were opened. In 1936, membership had
risen to 500.
The Y also sponsored a massive
fund-raising drive, beginning in 1927, to
purchase the land and build a building
at the 7th and Patterson Avenue
location.
Workers were organized into divi
sions and teams with captains for each
group. Notices of group progress were
run at regular intervals.
Among the young men who became
involved with the Y was Clark S. Brown,
who came to the city in 1929 to start
Brown’s Fraternal Funeral Home. He
founded the Bachelor Benedict Club,
became a trustee of First Baptist Church
and by 1940 was named chairman of the
management committee of the YMCA. .
1938 was a particularly newsworthy
year in black Winston-Salem. Dr. Atkins
resigned his post at “TC” due to ill
health. Replacing him was his son
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Francis L. Atkins, 37.
In January, 1938, a county grand jury
contained a black for the first time since
Reconstruction. The first black Boy
Scout troop in the city was organized. A
new office building was built at the
corner of 3rd and Church Streets for
black businesses, which still stands
today. The 14th Street pool was built as
a WPA project.
In the spring of 1938, a throng of
7,000 marked the opening of the Kate B.
Reynolds Memorial Hospital, the fore
runner of the current Reynolds Health
Center. On May 15, a mass rally
organized .
On May 15, 1938, 10,000 blacks
assembled in the Bowman Gray Stadi
um to honor Mr. and Mrs.
Reynolds, the Duke Foundation and the
city for the hospital.
Despite the gleaming new facility,
called one of the most modern of its kind
in the Southeast, Mary L. Fair recalls
the hospital was not well supplied.
“When it first opened up, it didn’t
have drinking glasses,” she recalled.
“We first carried mayonnaise glasses
and then gave glasses. It was the Don’t
Be Idle Club that did it, one of the oldest
clubs in the city”.
r A
If you see a relative
mentioned in the roots
of Black Winston-Salem,
Call us at 723-9863.
liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiii
Local bands played
degree from Shaw Univer
sity in 1913 and soon there
after opened the hospital in
his home.
Dr. Alexander Hamilton
Ray, another Shaw gradu
ate, began practicing in
Winston-Salem in 1916. He
opened a hospital at 13th
and Ridge Avenue, with 15
to 20 beds. According to
Dr. Ray’s obituary 600 ma
jor operations were perfor-
formed there.
The North Wing of the
City Hospital, financed by a
grant from R. J. Reynolds,
became inadequate to meet
the needs of the growing
black population by the
1930s.
A clamor from the black
community, particularly
from the Twin City Medical
Society, prompted the
building of the Kate B.
Reynolds Hospital in 1938,
with funding from Mr. and
Mrs. W. N. Reynolds, the
Duke Foundation and the
city.
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Corporation
Porkway
Old Town
Shopping Center
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JENNY SAYS "CALL ME FOR HOUSEHOLD H/NrS'
He worked in the field
of decorating, after at
tending the Avery Trade
School in Pittsburg, Pa.,
for preparation to ply the
trade. He joined K.
-Howard and W.S. Scales
in the funeral business,
acquired W.S. Scales’
interest and became sole
owner of the business
upon the death of Mr.
Howard, the founder.
Robinhood Park as well
as national agregations
booked through the
Morris-Gale Booking
agency of New York.
Jimmy Gunn was a fre
quent provider of music
at the park, featuring
“AI” Harrington, giii-
garist. Al was the father
of Jane Harrington, TV
personality.
-George Boole
James McCune Smith
James McCune Smith,
graduate of the university
of Glasgow, in Scotland was
one of the earliest black
physicians in the United
States. Although his siz
able practice kept him
busy. Smith engaged in
historical writing. He was
the author of several books,
the best known of which
was “Toussaint
L’Overture”, published in
1841.
Let your idle money
earn interest
with
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Forsyth
AND TRUST COMPANY
722-1336
Stratford Open 9-1, Saturday
• 110 STRATFORD ROAD
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•3410 ROBIN HOOD RD.
A Better
Community
Black
from page 13
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIItllllllllllllllllllllll
Folks drove horses on the
muddy pavement.”
What changes did he
think he would never see,
he was asked. “Pretty near
everything in Winston-
Salem, I thought I’d never
see,” he concluded.
In Black History
Martin Delany
Martin R. Delany, a man
of many talents and voca
tions, attended the Harvard
Medical School, although
he did not graduate, he
soon became a successful
physician. He was also an
author, an editor, and for a
brief period, a coloniza-
tionist.
Delany edited a
weekly newspaper and later
in 1852, published a chroni
cle of Black America
entitled "The Condition,
Elevation, Emigration and
Destiny of the Colored
people of the United States,
Politically Considered”.
This work is still considered
historically valuable. Du
ring the Civil War, Delany
was made a major, he was
considered the highest-
ranking black field officer
of that time.
-
BMMBeck
Roy Moore
For three rolls of ^luiies
you can talk toLincfdn
for6niinotes.
A 6'minute call to Lincoln, Nebraska from where you are costs
mst $1.50 or less, plus tax. That’s for a dialed'direct* call after
5 pm. Each additional minute costs about 24*1.
For details on other types of calls see your directory.
jCalltonighL
|6 minutes from anywhere
I North Carolina.
Dialed-Direct after 5 pm.
Boston -
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Kansas City
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San Francisco
$1.58“
... is one which realizes and recognizes the importance of
each of its citizens . . . where equal opportunity is ''for real".
Rachel Beck and Roy Moore are important people at the
Winston-Salem plant of Thomasville Furniture Industries.
Rachel operates a boring machine, one of the first steps
in forming components for furniture assembly. Roy puts
together the packing cartons for the finished product.
Each of them makes a valuable contribution to our total
operation. Roy and Rachel are fine people, and are
representative of the more than 450 employees at TFI's
Winston-Salem plant. We believe that because of them,
this js a better community.
’’'plus tax
What long distance buys you is priceless.
"Oiri\;t-diiil iwitlvuitan opi'rator's asMStanccl rates apply on all calls within the U S Direct-dia! rates do not
apply It' {X'rson-to*fX’rs>n.coin, hotol-gucst, crtxlit card, collect calls, calls charged to another number, or to
time aiul charge c.ills Fi'r direct-dial rates to -Alaska and Hawaii, check your operator.
Thomasville Furniture Industries, Inc
I North Carolina plants: Hickory, Lenoir, Pleasant Garden, Thomasville, West Jefferson and Wlnston-Sal^^