Healthcare Justice, Medicare, and the Racial Desegregation of Hospitals in the South

Abstract

This article explores the advent of Medicare, the process of desegregation of hospitals in the South, and the resistance to this governmental oversight. Events at the Medical College Hospital of South Carolina are described as an exemplar to illustrate the struggle for healthcare justice for Black Americans where the struggle for racially integrated healthcare ended in a hospital workers strike. Four hundred Black women walked off their jobs and marched in picket lines for 113 days without pay before the economic and human rights issues were resolved. As the cause for racial justice continues in America, an understanding of this story which represents the beginning of the long struggle for health equity which impacts our profession, and our patients, can benefit all nurses. This article reviews this important exemplar in its time period and offers a description of current efforts and implications for the profession of nursing.