Letters from John D. McQueen, regarding segregation at the Northington General Hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
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@ Alabama Department of Archives and History, 624 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36130
Description
In the first letter, written September 15, 1943, McQueen complains to Senator John Bankhead that an executive order at the hospital prevents segregation of the races. While he stresses that African American patients "should, of course, receive just as good treatment" as white patients, he finds the integration "unthinkable": "The South simply will never accept social equality between the races, and the time has come for those who seem determined to force it upon us...to realize that, in so endeavoring, they are rendering a great disservice to the negro, and aiding in destroying the good and proper relations which now exist between the races in Tuscaloosa, and in most other sections of the South." He asks the senator to "at once get busy, and see to it that the intolerable condition which prompts this letter is effectively and promptly put to an end." In the second letter, written September 17, 1943, McQueen gives Governor Chauncey Sparks an update on the situation by enclosing a copy of his most recent letter to Senator Bankhead. In that letter, McQueen reports on meetings he has had with hospital administrators: "I now believe that a sincere effort will be made by those in authority to correct the situation."
Text
600 Ppi Tiff
1943 September 1943 09
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