Wounded Black Veterans Segregated in Inferior Hospital Wards, Denied Equivalent Care

Black WWI veterans who were wounded or disabled received care in segregated wards of military hospitals that were documented as receiving less equipment, fewer skilled staff, and worse food than white wards. When veterans returned home, VA facilities in the South were either entirely white or provided inferior segregated care. The Veterans Bureau (predecessor to the VA) applied Jim Crow throughout its Southern operations. A separate Black veterans' hospital was eventually established at Tuskegee, Alabama in 1923 — as a segregated institution, not as a remedy for inequality.