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3. Advisory Health Committee meeting letter, 1962

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    City Of Chicago
    Richard J. Daley, Mayor
    Commission on Human Relations
    211 West Wacker Drive-Room 1310,
    Chicago 6. Illinois,
    Phone 236-4912

    Commission
    Ely M. Aaron, Chairman
    Ralph D. Robinson, Secretary
    Morris Bialis, Augustine J. Bowe, Dr. Preston Bradley, Clifford J. Campbell, William G. Caples, Lester Crown, Jerome J. Friedman, Mrs. Wendell E. Green, Maurice McElligott, Hale Nelson, Peter R. Scalise, Ray L. Walker, Edward Marciniak Executive Director

    May 4, 1962

    Dear Friend:

    The next meeting of the Advisory Health Committee of the Commission on Human Relations will be held

    Wednesday, May 16, 1962
    3 P.M.,
    211 West Wacker Drive
    Room 1328

    On May 16th we shall initiate a series of Health Committee meetings devoted to an examination of the shortage of South Side hospital facilities and its relationship to discrimination in medical care. A proposed solution to this problem, which has been endorsed by the Cook County Physicians Association, will be presented by a representative of that group.

    We urge you to attend this meeting and present your views.

    Please return the enclosed postal card indicating whether you plan to be present.

    Sincerely yours,
    Leonidas H. Berry, M.D.,
    Chairman Health Committee
    Hal M. Freeman, Secretary
    Health Committee

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Letter from Chicago Commission on Human Relations members Leonidas H. Berry, MD and Hal M. Freeman on the shortage of hospital facilities on Chicago’s South Side and its relationship to racial discrimination in medical care, May 4, 1962

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

The shortage of physicians and hospitals in poor neighborhoods and rural areas significantly contributed to unequal access. In 1962, civil rights leaders and physicians proposed a plan to bring more health facilities to Chicago’s predominantly-African American South Side.

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