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The untold story of a Black woman who founded an Alabama hospital during Jim Crow

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100-year-old artifacts discovered in home that once served as hospital for Blacks

  • December marks the 100th anniversary of the Juanita Coleman Hospital
  • Hospital served Black patients in Demopolis, Alabama during Jim Crow
  • Discrimination prevented Black physicians from working at facility    
  • Hospital artifacts discovered in attic nearly a century later

Mary Jones Fitts and her mother always enjoyed returning home to Demopolis, Alabama. Back in 2010, they were cruising through their old neighborhood when her mother, Mary Ida Calhoun, 85, casually pointed at a one-story blue house on East Washington Street.

“That was the Juanita Coleman Hospital,” said her mother.

Jones Fitts was puzzled. “Who was Juanita Coleman?”   

“She was a Black lady from Tuskegee who came to Demopolis and found out there was not a hospital for Black people,” said her mother. “So, she built this hospital.”

This was a life-changing conversation for Jones Fitts. It was the first time her mother mentioned the name Juanita Coleman or that a Black woman founded a hospital in west central Alabama – during the Jim Crow era.  The revelation was even more surprising because Jones Fitts is the former director and president of the local Marengo County History and Archives Museum.  Black history was her passion and she had absolutely no record of Juanita Coleman.

The revelation inspired Jones Fitts to dig for more information and bring the Juanita Coleman story to life. But in this Alabama community where Black people make up roughly half of the population, Jones Fitts was frustrated that more people did not know this story. She encountered some Black residents who were old enough to remember the Juanita Coleman Hospital but expressed a reluctance to talk about the painful history of discrimination that made an all-Black hospital necessary for survival.

“No more,” Jones Fitts told herself. “It’s time to tell our stories.”

Backstory

Nannie Juanita Coleman was born August 5, 1885, in Temple, Texas. After high school, Coleman studied at The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama where she graduated in 1908.

Coleman’s earliest achievements are documented in a few books and research papers. In 1915, at the age of 30, The Tuskegee Institute hired Coleman as the first female home demonstration agent to uplift poor Black families with lessons in agriculture, health, and homemaking.

During her years as a demonstration agent, Coleman had an important mentor by her side – Margaret Murray Washington. Washington was one of the most influential women in America as the principal of Tuskegee Institute and the widow of Booker T. Washington.

Under Mrs. Washington’s guidance, Coleman stages what might have been her most significant achievement. She raised money to secure space and furnishings to fulfill medical needs for the Black community in Demopolis. In 1923, Coleman purchased a house on Washington Street.

2015 discovery – side by side comparison of an unidentified portrait (left) discovered in the attic of a Demopolis, Alabama home, formerly, the Juanita Coleman Hospital. The portrait bears a strong resemblance to Margaret Murray Washington (right) who served as a mentor to Coleman. Washington led Tuskegee Institute and was the widow of Booker T. Washington. The portrait is on display at Marengo County historical society museum.

Juanita Coleman Hospital dedication

Hospital dedication article published in The Montgomery Advertiser, December 15, 1923

On December 15, 1923, The Montgomery Advertiser announced the opening of the Juanita Coleman Hospital. Approximately 600 people attended the dedication. The event was held in the town’s Confederate Park.

The total cost of the 12-bed facility and the furnishings was $6,000. Hospital superintendent Coleman is credited as the owner and operator who invested $2,000 of her own savings (the equivalent of $35,000 in 2023.) “The rest of the money was secured through donations from those interested in the movement, “according to the Montgomery Advertiser.

Despite her significant financial stake, ownership and naming rights, Juanita Coleman did not have complete autonomy over her hospital operations. Coleman reported to a board of trustees consisting of three Black and four White community leaders.

No Black doctors allowed

In 1923, The Selma Times Journal reported the purpose of the new Juanita Coleman Hospital was to provide care for “colored patients and training of colored nurses.” But there was one catch – Black doctors were not allowed to practice medicine at the hospital. The ban is spelled out in a single sentence near the end of the article “Only White doctors are to practice in this hospital.” The article provides no further explanation or context.

It’s possible that White leaders in Demopolis established discriminatory ground rules around Superintendent Coleman’s hospital as a condition of support or to limit competition between Black and White doctors. It’s also worth noting that a hospital exclusively for Black people also provided an excuse for White hospitals to continue the long-standing practice of denying medical services to Black people.

On the hospital’s fourth anniversary, The Demopolis Times published a thank you letter from Coleman to the community for “splendid” donations and financial help “thus making it possible for us to go a little further,” she wrote.

The struggle to pay bills

Juanita Coleman’s hospital operated on “small fees paid by patients and the generosity of the public”. A remarkable accomplishment, especially during the Great Depression when the hospital temporarily closed its doors. In the spring of 1931, Coleman took out an advertisement in the Demopolis Times and announced the “reopening” of her hospital. This time, she informs readers that the hospital doors will be open to “all licensed physicians.” This appears to be Coleman’s victory in toppling the Black doctor ban. 

It’s unknown when the hospital officially closed. The last known newspaper reference to her hospital is a furniture sale announcement published in The Demopolis Times in 1953. At the same time, Coleman was working in Washington D.C. as a counselor at an Industrial school for girls. Newspaper accounts indicate Coleman travelled frequently between Washington D.C. and Alabama. 

So far, there has been no documentation of Coleman’s life in the 1960’s. She died in 1973 and was buried in Maryland.

More amazing discoveries

Not long after the 2010 revelation about the Juanita Coleman Hospital, Mary Jones Fitts returned to the blue house on Washington Street. She met the owner, who was unaware of the building’s history. Walking through the front door, Jones Fitts felt like she was stepping back into time. Inside, she noticed a number affixed to each door in the central hallway. They were the actual room numbers original to the hospital.

The discoveries continued several years later, when the homeowner found hospital artifacts in the attic including a white cabinet containing medical instruments. Perhaps the most valuable find was a framed painting of an unidentified woman. The painting bears a strong resemblance to Coleman’s mentor, Margaret Murray Washington, the wife of Booker T. Washington. Both items have been on display at the Marengo County history and archives museum as the only public exhibit of Juanita Coleman’s hospital.

Registered nurse Inez Taylor Drake, graduated from Prairie View A&M nursing school before joining Coleman in Demopolis as head nurse in 1925. (Evelyn Inez Drake Houston family collection)

Author’s note: I’ve known for many years that in the 1920’s, my grandmother, Inez Taylor Drake RN was the head nurse at a hospital in Demopolis, Alabama. No one in my family, including my 89-year-old mother, had ever heard of the name Juanita Coleman. This led my family back into our scrapbooks where we found a century-old Demopolis postcard. On the back, my grandmother confirms what we never knew until now: “Sis Coleman introduces me to folks as her head nurse from Texas,” my grandmother wrote home to her younger sister. “Do you reckon I get to be somebody at last.”

Juanita Coleman Legacy

As a historian, Mary Jones Fitts believes she has a responsibility to continue telling the story, especially when she encounters life-long Demopolis residents who have never heard of the Juanita Coleman hospital. “Coleman was a force to be reckoned with,” says Jones Fitts. “She definitely left her mark.”

In addition to the legacy, Jones Fitts also thinks about her own mother who died two years after the Juanita Coleman revelation. What if her mother had remained quiet about this important piece of Black history?

“I wouldn’t be the historian that I am today,” says Jones Fitts. “My mother loved Demopolis. She loved the people that were here. Learning about Juanita Coleman started me on a journey that I am still on today.”

About the author: Carlton Houston is a former journalist, writer and historian. For more history stories, follow Carlton on Instagram @myhistoryvibe

Black History

Trump Signs Executive Orders That Will Impact HBCUs and Black Schoolchildren

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order that will provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and establish a White House Initiative on HBCUs to “deliver high-quality education to a growing number of students.”

According to the White House, the Initiative will help develop private-sector partnerships, institutional development and workforce preparation in technology, health care, manufacturing and finance. 

The president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Dr. Harry L. Williams said, “Today’s executive order serves as strong reaffirmation of President Trump’s support of investment of historically Black colleges and universities. This executive order should serve as a call-to-action for corporations, foundations, members of Congress and state lawmakers to redouble their efforts to support HBCUs and their students. TMCF looks forward to continued engagement with the administration and Congress to deliver results for HBCUs and the students they serve via appropriations and other legislative actions.”

On the same day, Trump signed another executive order that removes safeguards for African American schoolchildren by eliminating an Obama-era initiative to protect Black schoolchildren from excessive disciplinary action.

During the Obama administration, the first Black president’s administration created guidelines that sought to prevent school discipline from having a disproportionate effect on minority students. Trump revoked the civil rights initiative during his first term and Biden did not formally restore it. 

At his signing today, Trump said his decision was especially important to the current Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who held the signed order.

“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, schools were forced to consider equity and inclusion when imposing discipline,” McMahon said in a statement. “Their policies placed racial equity quotas over student safety – encouraging schools to turn a blind eye to poor or violent behavior in the name of inclusion.”

She added, “Disciplinary decisions should be based solely on students’ behavior and actions.

Studies show that Black students are punished more often than their white counterparts.

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Black History

President Jimmy Carter Appointed the First Black Woman to Lead a Federal Agency

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President Jimmy Carter advanced opportunities for African Americans throughout his life,
advocating for justice and peace consistent with the Christian values he embraced. Since his
death on December 29 at age 100, Mr. Carter’s praises have been sung from his home state of
Georgia to points around the globe. And while the former president’s one-term in the White
House is dismissed by some political pundits for a lack of policies or accomplishments that
changed the course of history, his character and integrity set him apart.


Carter became the first president to appoint a Black woman head of a federal agency. He chose
Patricia Roberts Harris to lead the Housing and Urban Development when he took office in
1977.


Harris said, “I feel deeply proud and grateful this President chose me to knock down this barrier, but also a little sad about being the ‘first Negro woman,’ because it implies we were not
considered before.”


Senator William Proxmire questioned Carter’s choice, saying Harris came from too much wealth and influence to be an effective leader. But Carter stood by his decision, and Harris stayed in the position for two years.


The 39th president’s name is also included on the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame.


Civil rights activist, Rev. Al Sharpton recalled a conversation he shared with Carter.


“It was very significant, I was talking there at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, and I was talking to President Clinton and President Carter,” Sharpton recalled. “And when Clinton and I finished talking, President Carter touched me on my arm and said, ‘How are you doing with your ministry, Al? I see you out there with your activism. Don’t leave your ministry … keep your prayer life going.’ And you could tell he sincerely meant it. He was not one who talked about his religion as a political kind of something you could say to voters.”


President Joe Biden declared January 9, 2025, a national day of mourning. Millions watched the former president’s funeral on television as he was remembered as a man of honesty,
compassion and faith – which included championing the rights of Americans who knew firsthand the struggle of injustice

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Black History

The Congressional Black Caucus Prepares for “Important” Work

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The Congressional Black Caucus started the 119th Congress with its largest membership. There were 62 members sworn in today.

“On behalf of the entire Congressional Black Caucus, congratulations to the members of the Executive Committee of the 119th Congress. 53 years after our Caucus’ founding, our work to improve the lives and conditions of Black people in America is more important than ever before,” said CBC President Steven Horsford.

Photo Credit: Ron Busby, U.S. Black Chambers Inc.

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