Henrietta Dismukes Hospital and Nurses’ Home

Henrietta Dismukes Hospital and Nurses’ Home. . , This is the site of Henrietta Dismukes Hospital and Nurses’ Home. The hospital burned down in 2016, and all that remains is the Nurses’ Home., Dr. Henry Dodford Dismukes was born on August 11, 1889, in Troy, Alabama. His mother was Henrietta Dismukes and his father is unknown., Dr. Dismukes graduated from Selma University in 1915 and went on to earn his medical degree at Howard University, graduating on June 10, 1921. He graduated with highest honors and won every prize offered during his four years there. Dr. Dismukes was appointed assistant surgeon at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. for four years. Following his time there, he received the call to take over the Harrison Memorial Hospital in Kimball, West Virginia, after Dr. Roscoe Harrison’s passing. Shortly after taking over the Harrison Memorial Hospital, Dr. Dismukes was asked to build a bigger hospital by Bluefield Sanitorium. He named it Henrietta Dismukes Hospital after his mother who died one month prior to its opening., The Henrietta Dismukes Hospital operated from August 16, 1929, to August 7, 1932. It served African American coal miners and their families in the Kimball-Norfolk area in McDowell County, West Virginia. The hospital was the largest privately owned African American hospital in the country at the time, with the latest technology and 50 beds for patients. Next door was the nurses’ home that served as a residence for the nursing staff., Dr. Dismukes entered into a contract with Bluefield Sanitarium in which he was promised payment of $3.50 per day for each African American patient that he treated. The sanitarium did not follow through with paying him. , He took Bluefield Sanitarium to court for breach of contract on March 30, 1931, where he demanded $150,000. The court ruled that Dr. Dismukes would be awarded $4,070. According to the Pittsburgh Courier, Dr. Dismukes was the first African American man in the United States to challenge a white corporation in court for a breach of contract. After the trial, he closed the hospital on August 7, 1932. Dr. Dismukes and his wife, Grace, moved back to Washington, D.C. where they lived out the remainder of their lives., Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is working to honor the legacy of Dr. Dismukes and bring attention to the injustices he and other African Americans in the region faced. A local committee was formed and successfully worked with Kimball mayor Adam Gianato on a proclamation declaring August 16 as Dr. Dismukes Day.