National Health Circle for Colored People, Inc. Hiking the Health Road for Others

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Title

National Health Circle for Colored People, Inc. Hiking the Health Road for Others

Description

Informational pamphlet about the National Health Circle for Colored People, Inc. 

The National Health Circle for Colored People developed out of the Circle for Negro Relief, an organization that helped meet the needs for black soldiers and their families during World War I. In 1919 the Circle was reorganized as a peace time program for the promotion of public health work in African American communities. Belle Davis, a graduate of Fisk University, served as the Circle's executive secretary. Davis made over 25,000 visits in nine years to promote public health and welfare and raise awareness of the needs of black communities. 

The National Health Circle for Colored People also worked to recruit, educate and place African American public health nurses. They raised money for scholarship loans and at one time provided office space for the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses

This pamphlet list six "Objects of the Organization" and speaks to public health conditions, their causes, and the remedy. An appeal to both white and black citizens for membership is followed by endorsements from Theodore Roosevelt, R. R. Moton, Haven Emerson, M.D., and C. Everit Macy. 

Dr. Will W. Alexander of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation is listed as a member of the Board of Directors.  

The Circle notes that "tuberculosis kills eleven times as many Negro boys between the ages of ten and fourteen as white boys, and about eight times as many colored girls as white girls."  Life expectancy of blacks was less than that of whites, and as many as 96 out of every 1,000 African American babies died before their first birthday. 

Pictured on the front cover are two Scholarship Nurses of the Circle, Alice Alvenia Sightler, R.N., graduate of Mercy Hospital, Philadelphia (left) and Agnes Boozer, R.N., graduate of Harlem Hospital School of Nursing (right).

Creator

National Health Circle for Colored People, Inc.

Source

M 9 Box 35, Adèle Goodman Clark papers, 1849-1978, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries

Date

between 1926 - 1929

Contributor

Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries

Rights

COPYRIGHT UNDETERMINED

The copyright and related rights status of this Item has been reviewed by the organization that has made the Item available, but the organization was unable to make a conclusive determination as to the copyright status of the Item. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/

Notes

Learn more: 

Organizing Black America: an encyclopedia of African American associations (2001). New York: Garland.

Thoms, A. B. (1929). Pathfinders: a history of the progress of colored graduate nurses. New York: Kay Print House.

Hine, D.C. (1989). Black women in white: racial conflict and cooperation in the nursing profession, 1890-1950. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

National Association of Colored Nurses records, 1908-1958. New York Public Library.

Hodson, Jane (1911). How to become a trained nurse. 3rd ed. New York, W. Abbatt. See p. 255, "Schools for Colored Nurses (Exclusively)."

Citation

National Health Circle for Colored People, Inc., “National Health Circle for Colored People, Inc. Hiking the Health Road for Others,” Social Welfare History Image Portal, accessed November 21, 2024, https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/items/show/488.