Provident Hospital Chicago Founded as First Black-Owned, Interracial Hospital in US

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams founded Provident Hospital in Chicago in 1891, in direct response to the exclusion of Black medical professionals from white hospitals. It was the first hospital in the US with an integrated staff. Williams performed the first documented successful open-heart surgery there in 1893. Provident became the model for Black hospitals founded in response to exclusion and served as a training ground for generations of Black nurses and doctors. By 1920 there were approximately 100 Black hospitals across the country serving communities denied care elsewhere.