Provident Hospital (Chicago)
Provident Hospital, now a public hospital, was the first African-American owned and operated hospital in America. Provident was established in Chicago in 1891 by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, an African-American surgeon during the time in American history where few public or private medical facilities were open to black Americans. It was founded to provide health care and medical training. Its initial officers were president John M. Brown, vice president Richard Mason Hancock, treasurer John T. Jenifer, secretary Louis H. Reynolds, and auditor Lloyd D. Wheeler Owned and run by African Americans, from its start Provident  was open to all regardless of race. It was also "the first private hospital in the State of Illinois to provide internship opportunities for black physicians . . .[t]he first to establish a school of nursing to train black women . . . one of the first black hospitals to provide postgraduate courses and residencies for black physicians and the first black hospital approved by the American College of Surgeons for full graduate training in surgery. Provident also offered an important forum, a proving ground for ideas about black self determination and institutional survival." In 1893, the first documented heart surgery was performed by Dr.  Daniel Williams at Provident Hospital and Training School. Though the historic Provident Hospital was forced to close in 1987 due to financial difficulties, it reopened in 1993 as part of Cook County Hospital System. to provide services to residents of Chicago's South Side. It is now known as "Provident Hospital of Cook County". Alton Abraham, the social entrepreneur associated with Sun Ra, worked here. First Lady Michelle Obama was born at Provident Hospital in 1964.