Eastside: Steeped in Medical History
The major San Antonio hospitals served only whites or had a “Colored Clinic” physically separated from the rest of the hospital during segregation. The current Veterans Outreach Center of St. Philips College was originally the Good Samaritan, a Black segregated medical facility. 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. Once completed, the Good Samaritan Hospital began servicing the needs of the community. During this period, Black people predominately populated the area. 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). Unlike his later liberal relatives, 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. Contrary to some beliefs, 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 services. 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, were due to substandard care under the racist San Antonio city segregation laws.
Addressing the need for health care were Black physicians Dr. Charles A. Whittier and Dr. Madison Preacher. In 1931, Dr. Whittier founded the Whittier Clinic on the East Side to help service the health needs of the black community. These doctors, the clinic, and the Black hospital provided medical training not available in a white supremacist San Antonio. Also, 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 was quoted in an article making the point that, “One of things we really wanted to do was the Good Samaritan Hospital. This was originally an African-American hospital when the hospitals in San Antonio were segregated.” At one point, the building became a women’s dormitory for St. Philips College and dances often took place there in later years. In December of 2011, the San Antonio City Council approved collaboration with the Alamo Community College District and St. Philip’s College to renovate the former hospital into a veteran’s outreach center. The Good Samaritan Veteran’s Outreach and Transition Center provides free services to all active duty, retired, veteran’s, their families, and the community in the San Antonio Area.
