Provident Hospital was the first Black-owned and operated hospital in America

[00:00:00]Chicago 1891.

[00:00:02]A black woman named Emma Reynolds wanted to become a nurse. Every nursing school in the city refused her because of her race. Her brother asked a black surgeon for help. That surgeon changed American medicine forever.

[00:00:14]Dr. Daniel Hale Williams couldn't get Emma Reynolds into Chicago's nursing schools, so he built his own.

[00:00:21]On May 4th, 1891, >> [music] >> he opened Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses, the first black-owned interracial hospital in the United States.

[00:00:30]Black patients finally received [music] care with dignity. Black doctors and nurses could train professionally.

[00:00:37]The staff was integrated.

[00:00:38]>> [music] >> The patient population was integrated.

[00:00:41]Frederick Douglass supported it publicly. Two years later, on July 9th, 1893, a man named James Cornish was stabbed in the chest during a bar [music] fight and rushed to Provident.

[00:00:52]Williams suspected a wound near the heart. With no blood transfusions available, >> [music] >> no modern anesthesia, and six doctors watching, four white, two [music] black, Williams opened Cornish's chest, exposed the breastbone, and sutured a torn artery near the pericardium.

[00:01:09]Cornish walked out 51 days later and lived for at least 20 more years.

[00:01:13]>> [music] >> Williams had performed one of the first successful open-heart surgeries in history. Provident trained generations of black physicians and nurses.

[00:01:22]It inspired dozens of similar hospitals across the country.

[00:01:26]Provident struggled financially for decades. It closed in 1987, but the community refused to let it die.

[00:01:34]In 1991, Cook County purchased it and reopened it in August 1993 after extensive renovations.

[00:01:42]Today, Provident Hospital of Cook County continues serving Chicago's South Side, still honoring the mission Dr. Williams started 134 years ago. Black professionals didn't wait for permission. They built their own institution.