Rights Groups Ask HEW to Act on Charges of Racial Discrimination in 16 Hospital

    10 Columbus Circle 
New York, N.Y. 10019 

* JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
President FOR RELEASE 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers Friday 
Director-Counsel ee ptenber 3, 1965 

Jack Greenberg 

RIGHTS GROUPS ASK HEW TO ACT ON CHARGES 
OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN 16 HOSPITALS 

Legal Defense Fund and NAACP Jointly File Complaints 

WASHINGTON--Charges of racial discrimination were filed here today 

against 16 federally assisted hospitals in eight southern states by 

the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the NAACP, 

The new charges make a total of 126 filed by the two 

independent organizations since last February. 

In a letter to John W. Gardner, secretary of Health, Education 

and Welfare, Jack Greenberg, Legal Defense Fund director-counsel, 

and J, Francis Pohlhaus, NAACP Washington Bureau counsel, asked that 

"appropriate action be taken to insure immediate compliance with the 

nondiscrimination provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act 

of 1964 and departmental regulations." 

Hospitals in Alabama, North and South Carolina, Texas, Florida, 

Georgia, Tennessee and Louisiana are accused of discriminating 

against Negro patients, employees, physicians, nurses and nursing 

students in*the complaints, which were filed on behalf of persons 

affected by the discrimination. 

In one, Searcy Hospital, Mt. Vernon, Ala., the complaint 

charges that Negro ward attendants are assigned to Negro wards which 

are inferior to those reserved for whites, The Negro attendants 

are paid lower monthly salaries than their white counterparts, the 

complaint alleges. 

The complaints similarly charges the hospital with setting a 

lower salary scale for Negro nurses, and with permitting a policy 

whereby Negro nurses must perform extraneous chores such as house- 

work for a white supervisor in order to qualify for raises, while 

white nurses get automatic promotions every six months, 

Orangeburg Regional Hospital, Orangeburg, S. C., is charged 

~ with continuing to segregate Negro and white patients destitecn. A 

federal court order for desegregation. 
(more) 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Sos 



as 

Rights Groups Ask HEW To Act On Charges September 3, 1965 
Of Racial Discrimination In 16 Hospitals 

In Raleigh, N. C., Rex Hospital is accused of refusing to 

admit Negro in-patients, and having no Negro physicians on its 

staff and no Negro students in its school of nursing. 

Similarly, Kershaw County Memorial Hospital, Camden, S. C., is 4 

charged with refusing to allow Negro doctors to practice in the 

facility. As a result, the complaint alleges, few Negro physicians | 

are attracted to the city, leaving its Negro population largely 

dependent on white doctors. 

Under Title VI, the Department of Health, Education aédWelfare 

can withhold federal funds from hospitals guilty of discrimination, 

However, a Legal Defense Fund spokesman last week accused the 

department of failing in its responsibilities under the law, 

Michael Meltsner, a Fund staff attorney, in a letter to James 

Quigley, HEW assistant secretary, said that only about 20 hospitals 

had peen hers in compliance with Title VI after HEW investigation 
of theft rst 110 complaints. 

EW's failure to take action against the remaining hospitals 

has led many to conclude that Title VI is a "paper tiger," 

Meltsner said. 

Named in yesterday's complaints were the Board of Trustees 

Alabama State Hospitals (Searcy Hospital, Mt. Vernon, Ala.); e 

Beaufort County Hospital, Beaufort, N. C.; Moorehead City Hospital, 4 
bse me 

Moorehead City, N. C.; Burgaw Hospital, Burgaw, N. C. 

Also, Robeson County Hospital, Robeson County, N. C.; Whitfield 

Memorial Hospital, Demopolis, Ala.; Kahn Memorial Hospital, : 

Marshall, Texas; St. Joseph's Hospital, Tampa, Fla.; Orangeburg 

Regional Hospital, Orangeburg, S, C.; Athens General Hospital, * 

Athens, Ga. 

And, Bedford County General Hospital, Shelbyville, Tenn.; 

Rex Hospital, Raieigh, N.C.; Washington County Hospital, Chipley, 

Fla.; Kershaw County Memorial Hospital, Camden, S. C,; Lake 

Charles Memorial Hospital, Lake Charles, La., and Talmadge Hospital, 

: Augusta, Ga, = *e cs 

=30-