Separate and Unequal: Black Americans Denied Treatment at White Hospitals

Through the 1940s and 1950s, nearly all hospitals in the South and many in the North maintain strict racial segregation. Black patients are refused admission at white hospitals or placed in basement wards with inferior care. Black physicians cannot admit patients or practice at white hospitals. The Hill-Burton Act of 1946, which funds hospital construction, permits 'separate but equal' facilities. Pregnant Black women are turned away from labor and delivery wards. The system directly contributes to Black maternal and infant mortality rates roughly twice those of white Americans.