The Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital (VA), established in 1923, is significant as the first VA hospital in the nation to be administered by an all African American medical staff.
After WWI, African American veterans found it difficult to secure proper treatment in segregated hospitals, especially in the South. Despite violent threats, the second Tuskegee University president, Robert R. Moton; John Andrew Hospital director, John Kenney; African American media; and others convinced the Veterans Bureau to approve an African American staffed hospital. President Calvin Coolidge ordered it.
The Tuskegee VA Hospital held rank with the four leading Veterans Bureau hospitals. By 1930, there were 52 permanent buildings and 97 professional staff providing treatment in all branches of medicine/surgery and ancillary services such as clinical laboratories, roentgenology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics and a medical library.
The Tuskegee VA continued to be staffed by African Americans until full integration at veteran hospitals. It was listed in the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on April 14, 1992.
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