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Black History
The Mercy Sanatorium
By Professor Willie Burton
Dr. Fred K.T. Jones founded the Mercy Sanatorium around 1915 at 925
Pierre Avenue, becoming Shreveport’s first black hospital. Of course
there had been several black doctors’ offices and infirmaries, but
nothing of the magnitude of Dr. Jones’ hospital. The sanatorium was
later renamed the Mercy Hospital and moved to 1218 Pierre Avenue in
1921 by Dr. William Wallace, perhaps the most popular doctor at the
hospital.
Dr.
Jones was from Homer, Louisiana and obtained his medical degree from
Meharry Medical School in Nashville, Tennessee. After starting the
hospital in Shreveport, he later moved to Little Rock, Arkansas where
he started the first black Hospital there, the Bush Memorial Hospital.
Dr.
Wallace became owner of the hospital in 1919. He later opened a free
clinic at the Sanatorium, jointly sponsored by the members of
Shreveport Colored Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Association, a
group that provided free assistance to poor blacks (1928). Black
doctors volunteered their time and services to the free clinic, the
only institution of it’s kind in Northwest, Louisiana. In the first
week of operation, more that 100 people were served. Each Wednesday
after that, the free clinic had more patients than it could serve
between its hours of 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
By 1936,
pressure from the outside, both civic and professional, caused the
free clinic to close. These pressures also led to the closing of the
Mercy Hospital. The building was purchased by Eugene Drake, who later
moved his funeral home to the site.
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