In honor of Black History Month, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and ALSAC, the hospital’s fundraising and awareness organization, have partnered with the National Civil Rights Museum in an exhibit reflecting on St. Jude’s legacy of defying racial inequities within healthcare.
“St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was founded as a beacon of inclusion and equality, and I couldn’t think of a better place to share that history than the National Civil Rights Museum,” says Richard C. Shadyac Jr., president and CEO of ALSAC. “We encourage everyone to visit this amazing museum to learn more about the connected civil rights stories of Memphis, ALSAC, and St. Jude.”
The interactive poster installation traces St. Jude’s history starting with its 1962 founding as the first fully integrated children’s hospital in the South at the height of segregation. With QR codes that direct visitors to video footage and webpages, guests can read about and hear the stories of three people: Paul Williams, the African-American architect who designed the original star-shaped hospital building; patient Courtney, whose life St. Jude’s care helped save; and Dr. Rudolph Jackson, one of the first Black doctors at the institution.
“When I first came here in ’68, I came here as part of the sickle cell program,” Jackson says in one of the exhibit’s videos. “The entire country and the world were going through the same kinds of things that we were seeing in Memphis. There was the school strike going on, the garbage strike, marches. … I wanted to do something for particularly African Americans who could not afford healthcare. The kind of healthcare people get here at St. Jude, you can’t purchase. It’s so great to find so many people who have the same ideas and work three times as hard.” Jackson has passed away since the filming of this video.
The exhibit is on display through March 8th in the guest lounge on the second floor of the museum.
“ALSAC & St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Commitment To Equity And Inclusion For All Children,”
National Civil Rights Museum, 450 Mulberry, on display through March 8th.
