Black Physicians in the Jim Crow South, 1880–1960

by Thomas J. Ward Jr.

In this comprehensive account, Thomas J. Ward examines the development of the African American medical profession in the South. Under segregation, the white medical profession provided inadequate service at best to African American patients. Paradoxically, African Americans could gain financial success and upward mobility by becoming doctors themselves. Ward tracks the rise of African American medical schools, professional organizations, and hospitals. He also explores the difficulties that African American physicians faced as an elite group within a subjugated caste, and the many ways in which their education, prestige, and relative wealth put them at odds with the southern caste system. Within the black community, in turn, this prestige often pushed doctors into the public sphere as business leaders, civic spokesmen, and political activists.



Drawing on a variety of sources from oral histories to the records of professional organizations, this book illuminates the contradictions of race and class in the South and provides valuable new insight into class divisions within African American communities in the era of segregation.

Genres: History

300 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Lionel Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a very informative academic history of what it meant to be a black physician under the racial segregation system of the southern united states. The book looks at the many roles the black physician played in his community such as community leader, entrepreneur, as well as health care provider. What makes this book especially interesting are the parts that describe the dual role of the black physician as part of a high status professional class while at the same time being a member of a lower racial caste. This created both obstacles and opportunities for black physicians. While this is an academic book it is an very interesting read and would appeal to anyone interested in the history of medicine especially as it was practiced in the segregated South.

[Ingrid Grant]

This was an amazing book. Although it didn't mention much about Texas physicians, it did open my eyes to the racial aspect of medicine. It showed how the medical profession was paternalistic and down right unfair. At the same time, some Black doctors kept up the issue of segregation by profiting from it. This book also made me wonder: "If White doctors did not care to treat Black patients, why was it such a big deal to prevent Blacks from becoming doctors in order to take care of their own?"