Title Deluxe Jim Crow : civil rights and American health policy, 1935-1954 / Karen Kruse Thomas

Published Athens : University of Georgia Press, ©2011

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Description 1 online resource (xvii, 372 pages) : illustrations Contents pt. 1. The nation's number one -- pt. 2. Deluxe Jim Crow comes of age, 1938-1945 -- pt. 3. Deluxe Jim Crow under Harry S. Truman, 1945-1953 Summary "Plagued by geographic isolation, poverty, and acute shortages of health professionals and hospital beds, the South was dubbed by Surgeon General Thomas Parran "the nation's number one health problem." The improvement of southern, rural, and black health would become a top priority of the U.S. Public Health Service during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. Karen Kruse Thomas details how NAACP lawsuits pushed southern states to equalize public services and facilities for blacks just as wartime shortages of health personnel and high rates of draft rejections generated broad support for health reform. Southern Democrats leveraged their power in Congress and used the war effort to call for federal aid to uplift the South. The language of regional uplift, Thomas contends, allowed southern liberals to aid blacks while remaining silent on race. Reformers embraced, at least initially, the notion of "deluxe Jim Crow"--Support for health care that maintained segregation. Thomas argues that this strategy was, in certain respects, a success, building much-needed hospitals and training more black doctors. By the 1950s, deluxe Jim Crow policy had helped to weaken the legal basis for segregation. Thomas traces this transformation at the national level and in North Carolina, where "deluxe Jim Crow reached its fullest potential." This dual focus allows her to examine the shifting alliances--between blacks and liberal whites, southerners and northerners, activists and doctors--that drove policy. Deluxe Jim Crow provides insight into a variety of historical debates, including the racial dimensions of state building, the nature of white southern liberalism, and the role of black professionals during the long civil rights movement"--Provided by publisher "Thomas provides a detailed history of federal health policy as it was applied to the U.S. South in the mid-twentieth century, a period when the region was described as "the number one health problem in the nation." In particular, she focuses on how reformers' early emphasis on across-the-board regional uplift was eclipsed by efforts to desegregate medical facilities and address racial disparities in the health care system"--Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Subject Minorities -- Medical care -- United States -- History -- 20th century Discrimination in medical care -- United States -- 20th century Equality -- Health aspects -- United States -- 20th century African Americans -- Medical care -- United States -- 20th century Prejudices. Health Policy -- history Black or African American -- history Civil Rights -- history Healthcare Disparities -- history History, 20th Century Prejudice HISTORY -- United States -- 20th Century. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Political Freedom & Security -- Civil Rights. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Disease & Health Issues. HEALTH & FITNESS -- Diseases -- General. HEALTH & FITNESS -- Health Care Issues. MEDICAL -- Diseases. MEDICAL -- Health Care Delivery. MEDICAL -- Health Policy. MEDICAL -- Public Health. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Civil Rights. Prejudices African Americans -- Medical care Discrimination in medical care Equality -- Health aspects Minorities -- Medical care SUBJECT United States Subject United States Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 0820341789 9780820341781

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