Letter from Ronald B. Almack, director of the Bureau of Hospital Survey and Construction, Dept. of Health, Commonwealth of Virginia to Colgate W. Darden, President of UVA, dated November 23, 1951, reporting that Part 1 UVA Hospital's application for Hill-Burton funds has been approved. The Hill-Burton Act of 1946 gave hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care facilities federal grants to construct new hospitals and to modernize existing ones, in return for the promise of provision of health services to communities regardless of ability to pay. The act did not, however, mandate desegregation of hospitals and other health care facilities as a prerequisite for obtaining federal funding. Thus, federal money was used to build racially-exclusive hospitals. Even though the Hill-Burton Act provided federal funding to some white hospitals such as UVA to expand segregated wards to African Americans, many of these wards were in basements with separate entry areas for African Americans. Thus, while access to white hospitals was expanded to African Americans, this did not mean equal treatment.
November 23, 1951
Historical Collections, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia
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