Crownsville Hospital and Civil Rights

Crownsville Hospital and Civil Rights. A New Era of Healing (1960s-1970s). Civil Rights, the evolution of mental health care and the push for racial equality transformed Crownsville Hospital in the 1960s and 70s. Community activism improved conditions throughout the hospital, and civil rights rulings led to the integration of the facility in 1962. Nationally, mental health treatment began to shift away from centralized institutions. Crownsville's first community care units were established in 1969.

As the hospital reformed at the grassroots level, national changes began to shape Crownsville in ways that radically impacted the patients, the facility, and the fundamental approach to mental health care.

The American Civil Rights movement touched communities around the country as organizers and freedom fighters protested inequality - Crownsville Hospital included.

The push for civil rights shaped the institution from the inside. Efforts to expand Black empowerment at Crownsville continued to improve the facility and patient conditions, and after failing to meet American Psychiatric Association operating standards for almost 10 years, Crownsville finally gained accreditation in 1962. That same year the patient population integrated, with adolescents first and adults in 1963.

At the height of the Civil Rights protests in September 1961, three Black activists were arrested at a segregated restaurant near Elkton, Maryland. While held at the Cecil County jail, they initiated a hunger strike in protest. After 12 days the activists were transferred to Crownsville State Hospital. Despite vocal opposition from white police and officials, the actvists were evaluated and found mentally sound by Crownsville psychiatrists. The three were later freed with suspended fines.

Nationally, mental health care evolved from large institutions like Crownsville to community-centered care. In 1961, the hospital established its first outpatient clinic in Baltimore to provide support for discharged patients. The Community Mental Health Act in 1963 spurred further changes, and under the leadership of Dr. George Phillip, the first Black Crownsville superintendent, four community care units were established in Anne Arundel, St. Mary's, Charles and Calvert Counties in 1969.

Another major change during this era was to Crownsville's long standing practice of using patients for agricultural, trade, construction and custodial labor to run the campus. Under the guise of "industrial therapy," patients had worked for the hospital since its establishment. In the early 1970s, the Department of Labor ruled that patients must be paid for all work, and for the first time in 60 years, unpaid patient labor in the fields and the workshops stopped.

Under Phillips' tenure as Superintendent, the staff continued to diversify and develop with Red Cross and other professional training - like this group of recently certified nursing staff in front of the Medical/Surgical building ca. 1960.

Dr. George Mackenzie Phillips, the first Black Superintendent of Crownsville Hospital, was an accomplished physician who sought to modernize the facility. A 1948 Howard University graduate, Phillips arrived at Crownsville in 1955 for his residency, later becoming a staff psychiatrist, chief of psychiatric services, and clinical director. He became Superintendent in 1965, serving until 1980. Phillips, a native of Trinidad and Tobago who became a U.S. citizen in 1960, is credited for his progressive leadership and inclusive hiring practices at Crownsville.

(Captions):

Image courtesy of the Baltimore Afro American

Dr. Phillips, ca. 1965, courtesy of Diane Phillips (Laguerre)