Rights Groups Challenge HEW to Halt Dixie Hospital Bias
Press Release
December 22, 1965

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Press Releases, Volume 3. Rights Groups Challenge HEW to Halt Dixie Hospital Bias, 1965. 6fd47b8f-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/b0fb1176-95c6-4557-92ab-f882a0337943/rights-groups-challenge-hew-to-halt-dixie-hospital-bias. Accessed June 01, 2025.
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10 Columbus Circle New York, N.Y. 10019 JUdson 6-8397 Legal Defense and Educational Fund PRESS RELEASE FOR RELEASE President Wednesday, Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers December 22, 1965 Director-Counsel ack Greenberg RIGHTS GROUPS CHALLENGE HEV! TO HALT DIXIE HOSPITAL BIAS WASHINGTON----The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and representatives of thousands of Negro physicians last week questioned the sincerity of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in enforcing non-discrimination provisions of the Civil Rights Act. In statements released here, the Legal Defense Fund, the 5,000-member National Medical Association (NMA) and the 3,000- member Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) charged HEW Secretary John W. Gardner with shirking his responsibilities under Title VI of the Act. Title VI calls for withholding of Federal funds from local agencies that discriminate. Representatives of the three groups met with Assistant HElW! Secretary James M. Quigley, who is in charge of enforcing Title VI, to discuss Federal aid to medical facilities, payment of funds under the Medicare program and investigation of complaints of discrimination. Later, Dr. John L. S. Holloman of New York, chairman of MCHR and president-elect of NMA, strongly criticized Mr. Gardner for not attending the meeting. "We wonder if your failure to meet with us has racial implications and may be symptomatic of the reluctance of your department to come to grips with the discriminatory practices in health care," Dr, Holloman said in a telegram to the secretary. In a 13-page memorandum to Mr. Gardner, the Legal Defense Fund said that since February, more than 300 complaints of discrimination in medical facilities have been filed withHEW. The department has found only about 35 of the facilities to be in compliance with Title VI, yet no action has been taken against the remainder, the memorandum charged. The Legal Defense Fund urged that Medicare funds be withheld from hospitals practicing discrimination when the medical care for the elderly legislation takes effect July l. : Failure to do so "...would be to throw away a superb oppor- tunity to end racial discrimination in southern hospitals," the ymemorandum said, The Legal Defense Fund also recommended that HEl employ additional staff to more vigorously enforce Title VI, and urged that Negro nurses be protected through the law. 250+ Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Sos