Arizona sun., 1947-08-29
Drs. Freeman, McCorroII
and Cobb Among Leaders
Making Hospital Fight
BY HELEN TAYLOR
Daily Peoples World Staff Writer.

DAILY FeOple'S world SCa1f writer.
Los Angeles, Aug. 26.-Negro
doctors, aS never before, are pro-
testing the practice of being shunt-
ed into "ghettoized' Negro medical
schools, of being refused equal hos
pital facilities and of having their
patients relegated to inferior ac-
commodations and treatment.
These protests were voiced in
emphatic form this week at the
Sind annual convention of the Ma
tional Medical Association, attend
ed by over 1900 Negro doctors
from all over the United States.
SOME VICTORIES
Many of the doctors from South
ern states came specifically for in
spiration and guidance in working
out the almost inSurmountable
problems of jim crow and segrega-
ton which severely limits medical
practice in the South with result
ant acute hardship on both doctor
and patient.
Some reported concrete victor
les in the hard struggle.
DR.. S. H. Freeman, surgeon from
Nashville, Tennessee, for instance,
told the convention that Negro
doctors in Nashville have filed a
court suit for the right to work
and treat patients at the Nashville
general hospital.
The doctors, he said, are follow
ing the example of Negro physi-
CLANS in Knoxville, Tennessee, who
several years ago fought for and
won the right to squal facilities at
the Knoxville municipal hospital.
And in Washington, D. c., con-
gressional committee soon will in
veStigate the practice of shunting
all Negroes to the Freedman hos
pital, DR.. w. D. Cobb, professor of
anatomy at Howard university, re-
ported.
DR.. Cobb, a short, stocky man
with quick, alert eyes, is the auth
or of Medical Care and the Plight
of the Negro" comprehensive
survey of the problem recently
published by the National Associa-
ton for the Advancement of Col
ored People.
A CLIO MEBMER
He also is an active member of
the CIO United Public Workers.
'"The time for segregation has
passed" DR.. Cobb said. "and even
at the cost of embarrassment, we
must make the white doctors un-
derstand this"
The Freedman hospital fight is
close to his heart for he believes
"the general picture throughout
the nation is reflected in extreme
form in Washington D. c.
In that city, he reported, no Ne
gro doctor can obtain staff posi-
ton on any hospital except Freed
man, which is supported with fed
eral funds. Practically all Negro
patients, too, are routed to Freed
man.
The Negro doctors, claiming the
right to be on the staff of munich
pal hospitals, have written letters
to District of Columbia hospital
authorities but have received no
answer.
ATTACKS ANA
In cooperation with civic and
medical organizations, the Negro
physicians carried their protests to
the Presidents Committee on Civil
Rights and as a result full Con
gressional investigation has been
ordered, DR.. Cobb declared.
In his book, DR.. Cobb exposed
the attitude of the American Med
ical Association which, he said, has
had ian exceedingly detrimental
effect upon the progress of the
profession and the improvement OF
Negro and, unavoidably, the gen.
eral health.
"The technique by which color
ed physicians are barred from
membership in the American Med
ical Association in a large part of
the country is the stipulation that
this membership is contingent
upon membership in physicians
local county and state association.
Such membership is denied colored
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