Dying in the City of the Blues - Chapters 3 & 4

Chapters 3 and 4 of Keith Wailoo's Dying in the City of the Blues discusses the changes to the American healthcare system within the post-World War II era. African American's viewpoints began to change following the war due to the treatment received within the army. A soldier, Van Dyke, wrote about his observations from within the ranks, "There are thousands of negroes whose point of view is being decidedly changed by the army. They've getting equality like they never dreamed of, and I believe it'll have far reaching effects. The ignorant, bigoted, poor-white trash in the South will create the big problem if and when we start to arbitrate the race question."1 From within the army, Van Dyke foresaw changes that would happen in society based off of the treatment towards African Americans in the army during World War II.
Within Memphis, African American consumers for healthcare drafted the idea of a new hospital. This new hospital would economically benefit the city and provide healthcare to many. However, the mayor, Watkins Overton, opposed the idea. Overton believed that the hospital would not be a sound business and the idea was too unstable. How would the institution be staffed and how would black nurses be trained when the University of Tennessee did not admit African Americans for professional training? Overton launched the MacLean report as an outside study to observe the problem within Memphis. At the conclusion of his study, MacLean called for the construction of a new private hospital for African Americans that would be located beside the John Gaston Hospital. African American students could go through residency training; to increase the amount of African American doctors since there was a trend of very low amounts of young African American doctors. This was a step forward for Memphis' black community and was a part of the changes that occurred to American healthcare following World War II. 

1. Wailoo, Keith. Dying in the City of the Blues: Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2001. 88.

2. Wailoo, Keith. Dying in the City of the Blues. 101.