Good Samaritan Hospital Stands as a Reminder of How Segregation Shaped Healthcare Access in San Antonio
A historic hospital for Blacks in San Antonio, at 202 Connelly Street, once served the Black community of San Antonio. Historically, San Antonio hospitals served only whites or had a “Colored Clinic” physically separated from the rest of the hospital. The original structure was Corinth Baptist Church in 1915. Eventually, well-known Black contractor W. C. White added a second story. In 1948, with the help of Corinth Baptist Church and others, the structure became a hospital for Black people. Two women who were hospital workers originally proposed the hospital; Rachel Starr was a registered nurse and Genevieve Troutman a hospital technician.
According to a 1948 San Antonio Light Newspaper article, “’Mrs. Starr said that for years she felt a deep sympathy for the city’s Negroes (Blacks) in their need of a hospital. Negro surgeons never have been allowed to operate in white hospitals.” The Good Samaritan Hospital allowed for the members of the surrounding community to have easier access to health care. Completed in 1948, the Good Samaritan Hospital began servicing the needs of the community.
Several citizens were born there including John Henry Sanders Jr. who served as a City Councilman for the City of San Antonio. Paradoxically, slave owner Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803-1870) originally owned some of the area. Maverick was part of the racialized leadership in San Antonio and a supporter of white supremacy and a pro-slavery group known as the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC). Samuel Augustus Maverick was a signer of the Texas Constitution of 1836, which enshrined slavery. In fact, Samuel Augustus Maverick owned seven slaves just before coming to Texas in 1837. San Antonio was as segregated as any other southern city.
In 1925, at 716 Sherman Street, a small health care clinic operated by Mrs. Jemima Elizabeth Lee, provided some medical and dental services. Forced to use segregated areas of local hospitals, Black doctors could not operate in white hospitals as revealed in archival records by the late Lillian Sutton-Taylor.
More S.A. History: St. Paul Square Was Erased by Development and I-37
The Reverend Claude Black, born in San Antonio in 1916, remembered that he was born at home because blacks could not go to white hospitals. Charles Bellinger, the African-American political leader, donated substantial funds to Santa Rosa Hospital, to accommodate the needs of the “colored T. B. patients” Discriminatory practices created a dilemma in health care for many African-Americans. Some of the more common health problems, left untreated, was due to substandard care under the segregation laws.
Home Remedies Due to Lack of Black Doctors
The San Antonio Inquirer, a Black newspaper, largely promoted home remedies due to the lack of Black doctors. Attempts to address this critical need for health was Black physician Dr. Charles A. Whittier. In 1931, Dr. Whittier founded the Whittier Clinic, located a short distance from this site, to help serve the health needs of the black community. The clinic and this hospital provided medical training not available to Black interns. Dr. Whittier later became the first African American doctor on the Santa Rosa staff after integration. During the days of Jim Crow, the Volunteer Health League founded by G. J. Sutton, organized to raise funds for tuberculosis patients who could only obtain treatment in Kerrville, Texas.
I led the charge within the TIRZ (Tax Increment Refinance Zone) Board and the City of San Antonio to award several million dollars for renovation of the structure. In 2015, The TIRZ Board voted for restoration of the Eastside landmark, which held important historical meaning. Back when this TIRZ was first formed, around 1999, one of things we really wanted to do was save the Good Samaritan Hospital.
