https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/8b959d1cc5a2fb23ddf988b626b3f9bc.jpg a862821672612a789c4d74d84be6e0a4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Juanita and Benjamin Grant, M.D.: Mercy Hospital, Gary Description An account of the resource Juanita C. Grant and her husband Benjamin F. Grant were community leaders who promoted racial equality in Gary, Indiana during the Civil Rights Movement. The Grants sought to improve conditions for the African American population of Gary by establishing community organizations, helping gain access to essential resources, and organizing a coalition of leaders to serve the city’s African American community. Most notably, Benjamin and Juanita Grant successfully lobbied Gary’s oldest hospital, Mercy Hospital (now St. Mary Medical Center) to allow African American doctors admitting privileges in 1945.[1] Juanita Grant has been described as a “bold and unique voice” in the early years of the Civil Rights era, who transformed her community in ways that can still be seen in Gary today.[2] Despite losing her mother at a young age and attending school at a time when it was difficult for African American students to find support in Indiana, Juanita Grant was an ambitious learner who earned her bachelor’s degree at Indiana State College in Terre Haute and her master’s degree in Social Work at Ball State University. As a resident of Gary and leader in the African American community, she co-founded and established the Jack and Jill of America Inc. chapter in Gary, organized local Girl Scouts and Brownies groups, and supported Gary’s historic Stewart Settlement House.[3] Benjamin Grant was also a very influential Civil Rights leader among Gary’s African American population. He was a lifetime member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and served as the co-chair of Gary’s branch of the organization during the 1940s. A practicing physician and surgeon, Dr. Grant launched a campaign to advocate for the medical rights of African American medical professionals and patients.[4] During the early twentieth century, medical facilities were heavily segregated in Indiana. African American doctors, nurses, and patients faced severe discrimination. In Indianapolis, training facilities for nurses were separated by race, and finding employment at a public hospital was virtually impossible for African American doctors. Indianapolis City Hospital, the only hospital in the Indianapolis that admitted African American patients, turned away African American doctors seeking internships and pressured African American nurses to receive training outside Indiana. The hostility that African American doctors and nurses encountered was also felt by African American patients seeking medical care in Indianapolis. At Indianapolis City Hospital, African American patients were sequestered in a “Jim Crow wing” in the basement of the building, where they were often crowded into small areas and given inadequate care.[5] Segregation in the medical system was worse in other areas of Indiana, however, for outside the state capital, “there were no public hospitals in Indiana that admitted African Americans; blacks were entirely dependent on private medical institutions.”[6] Like most hospitals outside of Indianapolis, Gary’s Mercy Hospital refused to admit African American patients when it first opened. Established in downtown Gary by the Gary Land Company in 1907, Mercy Hospital was a white-owned, private hospital staffed first by the Sisters of St. Francis and later by the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ.[7] It was not until the 1930s that Mercy Hospital began to accept African American patients, and even then, they were placed in segregated wards.[8] African American doctors employed at Mercy were denied admitting privileges. As a practicing doctor in Gary, Benjamin Grant was aware of how limited medical resources were for the city’s large African American population. In 1945, with the help of his wife, Dr. Grant began lobbying to integrate Mercy Hospital and permit African American doctors admitting privileges. The Grant’s effort to provide better healthcare for Gary’s African American population was successful. In 1945, Mercy Hospital granted African American doctors admitting privileges, a move that provided Gary’s African American community with more access to medical care and better treatment within the hospital.[9] In the immediate years after the hospital’s integration, Mercy Hospital thrived as Gary’s premier medical institution. The hospital trained nurses and interns, built specialized departments, and gained international recognition as the birthplace of musician Michael Jackson. As U.S. Steel jobs declined in the 1970s, Mercy Hospital began to suffer, as much of Gary’s white community relocated to neighboring cities. In an attempt to revitalize the medical facility, Mercy Hospital underwent a restructuring in the mid-1970s. The West Wing of the hospital was built, and Mercy Hospital was renamed St. Mary Medical Center. These updates, however, were not enough to stave off the decline of the aging building. By the early 1990s, St. Mary’s had lost millions of dollars and was in danger of closing.[10] In 1993, Summit Medical Management purchased St. Mary Medical Center, renaming it Northwest Family Hospital. After two years of economic loss and unsuccessful restructuring attempts, Summit “declared the situation terminal” and decided to close St. Mary Medical Center.[11] Although the Mercy Foundation fought to keep the hospital open, and private interests attempted to purchase the building, no one could afford to maintain costly hospital operations. In November 1995, St. Mary Medical Center was closed. While much of the building stands abandoned today, the newest addition of the hospital, the West Wing built in the mid-1970s, serves as the headquarters of Gary’s police department.[12] The remains of St. Mary Medical Center, or “Mercy” as longtime residents call it, stands as a monument to Gary’s oldest hospital and a legacy of the pioneering work of Juanita and Benjamin Grant.[13] Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived [1] “Juanita C. Grant Foundation,” Juanita C. Grant Foundation. Accessed May 12, 2020, https://www.jcgfdn.org/history1. Times Staff Report, “St. Mary hospital for sale. Gary medical center lost $3.6,” The Times of Northwest Indiana, March 18, 1993, https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/st-mary-hospital-for-sale-gary-medical-center-lost/article_ddf6c861-694d-57b0-9d6b-ec6159a40a52.html. [2] “Juanita C. Grant Foundation.” [3] Ibid. [4] Ibid. [5] Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 64. [6] Ibid. [7] Downtown Gary Scattered Sites (19001-680). [8] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, 64. [9] “Juanita C. Grant Foundation.” [10] Ursula Bielski, Haunted Gary (Charleston: The History Press, 2015), 30. [11] Robin Biesen, “Hospital closes. Gary’s Northwest Family succumbs to its,” The Times of Northwest Indiana, November 22, 1995, https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/hospital-closes-gary-s-northwest-family-succumbs-to-its/article_2908a57a-0d3e-58f9-92c0-e9917e41422a.html [12] Bielski, Haunted Gary, 31. [13] Times Staff, “St. Mary.” Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Student Author: Natalie Bradshaw Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource PHOTO & VIDEO: Hoosier State Medical Association Meeting 1956, Indiana Historical Society, M0510. https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc018/id/3389/rec/5 1900-1940s 1950s-present Civil Rights Movement Gary Healthcare Integration Lake County Segregation