Tuskegee Veterans Hospital

We celebrate Dr. Joseph H. Ward this Veterans Day!

This past September, the Department of Veterans Affairs posthumously awarded an Exceptional Service Award to Wilson native Dr. Joseph H. Ward for his leadership of the V.A.’s first all-Black hospital “during an era of severe discrimination and racial hostility.”

To learn more about Dr. Ward and Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital, see this recent NPR piece, A Century Ago, Black WWI Vets Demanded Better Care. They Got Their Own Hospital, and this National Archives blogpost, The Trials and Triumphs of Dr. Joseph H. Ward.

Dr. Joseph H. Ward stands at center in the first row in the photograph taken of the V.A. Hospital’s ground-breaking all-Black medical staff.

 

The funeral of Dr. J.P. Stanley of New Bern.

I came across this transcript of an article in the 14 July 1931  edition of The New Bernian in Afro-American Death Notices From Eastern North Carolina Newspapers 1859-1935, Berry Munson, editor:

An overwhelming crowd turned out Sunday to pay tribute of respect to the late Dr. Judge Pickett Stanley, whose funeral was conducted at St. Peters church on Sunday at 4 o’clock. Rev. H.R. Hawkins, pastor, officiated, assisted by the Rev. Maultsby, Branch, Sutton, Todd, Love, and Johnson. Resolutions from the church were read by Prof. W.S. Todd; there was a solo by Mrs. Ella Battle; statement from the family by Rev. W.F. Todd who also gave intimate remarks about the deceased. Rev. Hawkins preached from the text, “There is a time to die,” an eloquent discourse on the meaning of life and death. An impressive part of the service was the address by Col. J.H. Ward, commanding officer at U.S. Veterans hospital in Tuskegee where Dr. Stanley had worked for several years. He closed by reading  resolutions from the staff of the hospital. The following members of the medical profession were present from out of the city. Drs. Bynum, Harrison and Wright of Kinston; Drs. Delaney, Sebastian, Winston, and Fleming of Raleigh; Drs. Dilliard and Williams of Goldsboro; Dr. Battle of Greenville; Dr. Dudley of Veterans Hospital, Tuskegee. These with our local staff, Drs. Mann, Fisher, Munford, Martin, Davies, Alston and Hill were honorary pall-bearers. The active pallbearers were I.H. Smith, Guy Howard, Jessie Pearson, W.S. Todd, W.T. Lewis, L.C. Starkey and Ambrose Harget. Other visitors were W.C. Redding of Kinston; Mr. and Mrs. E.W. Fisher and Camillus Darden of Wilson; Miss O.L. Bigsby of Tuskegee; Miss Jessie Williams and friends of Goldsboro and Dr. and Mrs. Bynum of Kinston. Interment was in the family plot in Greenwood cemetery.

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Friends with Wilson ties were:

White personnel make way for Dr. Ward and staff.

Wilson Daily Times, 13 March 1924.

In early 1924, Wilson native Dr. Joseph H. Ward, a major in the Army Medical Corps and a pioneering physician in Indianapolis, was appointed first African-American chief surgeon and medical director of a Veterans Administration hospital. The appointment was poorly received by many in Tuskegee, Alabama, and the displacement of former personnel by a nearly all-Black staff was initially stiffly resisted.

Proud he was born in Wilson.

Dr. Joseph H. Ward, circa World War I. Photo credit unknown.

In September 1926, Dr. Joseph H. Ward sent a note of thanks to Daily Times editor John D. Gold for a complimentary article the paper had published a few weeks before. The New York World had picked up and reprinted the piece, which had caught Dr. Ward’s attention. 

Dr. Ward noted the “generosity and goodwill” of Wilson’s citizens and proclaimed that he was “proud to have been touched by the benign influence of the men who laid the foundation of the Wilson of today — the Messrs. Barnes, Woodards, Ruffins, Rountrees, Golds, Daniels, Conners, Davises, Vicks and Prices, and their illustrious compatriots.” 

By populating his roll call with surnames only, Dr. Ward was able to place on an equal footing the African-American men who had positively impacted his youth — Samuel H. Vick and Joseph C. Price (and possibly, Rev. Fred M. Davis.) Notably, he did not name the family of his biological father, Dr. David G.W. Ward.

Wilson Daily Times, 3 September 1926.

I have not been able to find the August 19 article.

Many thanks to J. Robert Boykin III for the clipping.

Dr. Ward challenged Jim Crow.

Indiana History Blog published Nicole Poletika’s detailed look at Dr. Joseph H. Ward‘s role in challenging segregation as the head of Tuskegee, Alabama’s Veterans Hospital No. 91 in the 1920s and ’30s.

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Dr. Ward is on the front row, center (next to the nurse) in this 1933 photograph of Veterans Hospital staff.  Photo courtesy of VA History Highlights, “First African American Hospital Director in VA History,” U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

For more on Dr. Ward, who was born in Wilson about 1869, see here and here and here and here and here.

[Sidenote: Dr. Ward was not born to “impoverished parents” per the article, though it is possible that he himself gave this gloss on his early life. Rather, his father was Napoleon Hagans, a prosperous freeborn farmer in nearby Wayne County, and his mother was Mittie Ward, a young freedwoman whose family moved into town after Emancipation from the plantation of Dr. David G.W. Ward near Stantonsburg.]

Hat tip to Zella Palmer for pointing me to this article. She is Dr. Ward’s great-granddaughter, and they are my cousins.

On the occasion of his historical marker dedication, another account of Dr. Ward’s appointment.

This weekend, with his granddaughter and great-grandchildren in attendance, the Indiana Historical Bureau, the American Legion, and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History will dedicate a historical marker commemorating the lifetime achievements of Wilson native Dr. Joseph H. Ward. Though I’ve blogged about him here and here and here and here, this seemed an appropriate time to feature yet another long newspaper article detailing Dr. Ward’s accomplishments.

 

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“The appointment of Dr. [Joseph H.] Ward to this position marks a decided step forward for the race. In many respects this may be regarded as the highest office to which a Negro has ever been appointed, certainly the most responsible.”

Topeka Plaindealer, 25 July 1924.

Photos courtesy of L. Bates.

Wilsonian Ward appointed Chief Surgeon at Tuskegee.

Wilson Daily Times, 28 January 1924.

More than 40 years after he left, the link between Dr. Joseph H. Ward and Wilson was well-enough known that the Daily Times printed an article about his appointment as Chief Surgeon at Tuskegee’s veterans hospital.