The Health and Hospital Committee consisted of the chairman John G. Grimley, an experienced superintendent at many hospitals across New York City, and Charles E. Robert, the first Black member of the Board of Alderman.
The opening statement in the section on the health of Harlem residents linked the subject to the precarious economic conditions and poor housing conditions laid out in other sections of the report. “In the Harlem area as in the country at large, the Negro death rate is exorbitantly high in the very diseases in which lack of sanitation and medical care, and poverty are important factors.”[1] First among these diseases … is tuberculosis.” According to the report, tuberculosis rates for Blacks and whites had been decreasing since 1910 but, after 1922, the Black death rate held steady while the white death rate continued to fall. In the health districts comprised of 95% or more Black people, the death rate from tuberculosis ranged from 251 to 319 per 100,000 residents. The districts with smaller Black populations “showed correspondingly lower death rates from tuberculosis.”[2]
Infant mortality showed a similarly disturbing trend. In the health districts where Black people “made up almost the entire population, the infant death rates ranged from 94 to 120 per 1,000 live births.”[3] Central Harlem had the highest rates in the City of maternal mortality, diphtheria mortality and the incidence of whooping cough.
The Committee reported on the health agencies serving Central Harlem and noted that the operations were segregated, and services were unequal. A comparison of health services provided in Central Harlem and East Harlem, with only a 10% Black population, showed the vast difference in services. In 1934, the report stated thatthere were 11,471 nursing visits to schools in East Harlem, as compared to 1,417 visits to schools in Central Harlem.[4]
Infant mortality showed a similarly disturbing trend. In the health districts where Black people “made up almost the entire population, the infant death rates ranged from 94 to 120 per 1,000 live births.”[3] Central Harlem had the highest rates in the City of maternal mortality, diphtheria mortality and the incidence of whooping cough.
The Committee reported on the health agencies serving Central Harlem and noted that the operations were segregated, and services were unequal. A comparison of health services provided in Central Harlem and East Harlem, with only a 10% Black population, showed the vast difference in services. In 1934, the report stated thatthere were 11,471 nursing visits to schools in East Harlem, as compared to 1,417 visits to schools in Central Harlem.[4]
The Committee observed that “the Public Health Nursing Service which is under the Civil Service of the city government represents a racially segregated unit.”[5] The report described the assignment of public health nurses as “a deliberate attempt to establish a Jim Crow health set-up.”[6] The director of the Nursing Service of the Board of Health claimed that segregated health centers were the most efficient way of working. The Committee observed Black nurses were continuously transferred to Harlem Hospital from other institutions. “In one instance two Negro nurses were transferred from Presbyterian Medical Center because it was stated that there were objections to Negro nurses in the Tuberculosis Clinic at the Medical Center.”[7] White nurses who were originally assigned to the Harlem Hospital were later transferred to hospitals outside of Harlem. The Committee also cited a member of the Medical Board who had veto authority over promotions and placements and noted that “Negro doctors are not disposed to underrate Dr. B’s scientific ability, but insist that his racial attitude, like that of Hitler towards the Jews, causes him to ignore and belittle the scientific ability of medical men who are black.”[8]
The Committee devoted substantial attention to the operations and conditions at Harlem Hospital. Emblematic of the struggle of the Negro for equal status in New York City, the Committee cited a fifteen-year battle to staff the hospital with Black medical professionals.
Their review of the physical conditions at Harlem Hospital revealed unfinished construction, unsanitary conditions, and a lack of resources. Medical equipment was antiquated, and overcrowding was a huge issue. “With a bed capacity of 325, it was not an unusual occurrence for the hospital to accommodate as many as 450 patients,” making it “more overcrowded than any other hospital” according to the City’s Commissioner of Hospitals.[9]
This resulted in “patients forced to give up their beds periodically. Cots were placed in the hallways, couches were squeezed between beds; stretchers were used as beds and some patients were forced to sleep in chairs. Patient elevators were out of order for more than a year and patients were transported in the garbage elevator.”[10] “In other respects the inadequate facilities and the old and worn-out equipment of the hospital make for an unbelievable situation in a civilized community.”[11] Hospital operations lacked discipline and supervision. Often people would use the Hospital as a public path between 136th Street and 137th Street. Orderlies disrespected their supervisors and refused to assist nurses. They rolled loud trucks through the hallways and were not mindful of patients.
The Committee concluded that “the shameful physical condition of the hospital, the lack of proper consideration for patients, the absence of morals in its administration, and its inadequate nursing staff, are all due to the failure of the hospital authorities to treat the Negro as other citizens. Racial segregation in this instance, as in all other instances where segregation is practiced, has resulted in a lower standard of efficiency and treatment for the Negro.”[12]
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