Boston City Hospital bends to social pressure and opens its doors to Black medical professionals and trainees. The medical system begins to achieve racial integration.
The founder of Plymouth Hospital, Dr. Cornelius Garland, worked with Black newspaper owner William Trotter to advocate for the integration of hospitals in Boston. The men started as foes - Trotter prevented Garland from expanding his hospital - but eventually banded together to achieve their shared goal of improving health outcomes for the Black community. Together, they successfully lobbied to get two Black women admitted to the Boston City Hospital training program as trainees.
A notable influence at this time was the publication of the Flexner Report of 1910, which dramatically transformed medical education in North America. The report had the unintended consequence of closing five out of seven medical schools for African Americans, which often lacked the funding and technology of other programs. Due to this and other changes in regulations, Dr. Garland was hard-pressed to continue operating Plymouth Hospital, causing its demise and encouraging him to fight for integration. The impact of the Flexner Report still resonates today, as it shaped the educational landscape in which racial imbalances in medical training and healthcare access began to be more critically addressed.
