Orlando: Black babies born next to boiler room

[Jeff Kunerth | Sentinel Staff Writer
July 11, 2008
Dr. Alfred L. Bookhardt began his career as a physician in the 1960s, when blacks were barred from practicing at Orlando hospitals or joining the American Medical Association.

A belated apology for past discrimination by the American Medical Association is a small consolation for 79-year-old Alfred L. Bookhardt, a black physician who arrived in Orlando in the days of segregation.

"He feels it's necessary for an apology, but it's way too late for him. Being denied membership affected his lifestyle, his livelihood, his status and the opportunity to grow," said his wife, Ola Bookhardt.

The association Thursday apologized on its Web site for "its past history of racial inequality toward African-American physicians, and shares its current efforts to increase the ranks of minority physicians and their participation in the AMA..."

...At the same time the AMA was denying Bookhardt membership, Orlando hospitals were barring black doctors from joining their staffs and separating black patients from whites. At Orange Memorial Hospital -- now Orlando Regional Medical Center -- the black ward was in the basement next to the boiler room, and women having babies were placed next to men with tuberculosis.

"They went to Orange Memorial, where they were relegated to the basement with boiler pipes to deliver their children," said Geraldine Thompson, director of the Wells'Built Museum of African American History. "Many children were delivered in the elevator."]
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-ama1108jul11,0,3220532.story

Ban anything offensive, even historic pictures

"I still feel that if anyone finds it offensive, it should not be displayed," the Orlando Sentinel quoted city commissioner Daisy Lynum as saying in reference to a photo of a barefoot black caddie holding the golf bag for a white golfer, a picture displayed in restaurant of renovated city owned golf course, Dubsdread.

A later report had this quote. "They say it (photograph) is a part of history," Lynum said, "but so is lynching and killing. Do we keep those pictures on display?"

Yes, Ms. Lynum, places like the Black Holocaust Museum have as an exhibit on Strange Fruit - Lynching in America so the terrible history of racism shall instruct us on how to treat our fellow humans.

Yes, blacks could not then legally golf on the course, but hopefully picture shows a black man making some coin caddying. It also shows dependency of upper class white culture on black workes: waiters and washers, caddies and domestic employees.