Herbert E. Millen

A NEW ERA IN THE FIGHT FOR NURSING CIVIL RIGHTS: MERCY-DOUGLASS HOSPITAL SCHOOL OF NURSING

https://repository.upenn.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/bfa7f0a9-7aa0-47c6-9136-9ec0c9fbf2d1/content

Shortly after the hospital merger, the Mercy-Douglass Board of Directors, headed by prominent community leader Judge Herbert E. Millen, formulated and submitted a proposal to Governor James H. Duff and state lawmakers for the allocation of Hill Burton funds for the construction of a three-million dollar, 215-bed hospital.18 The proposal encapsulated the continuous exclusion of Black nurses and doctors from the city’s nursing and medical establishments. Although medical services for Black Philadelphians were slowly improving as the city’s Black population continued to grow through the 1940s due to in-migration, nearly all of the city’s hospitals remained closed off to Black nurses and physicians even as Black citizens, like white, were providing tax revenues for these facilities.19 Thus, Mercy-Douglass leaders believed that the crux of the race problem was the lack of health professional training and employment opportunities for Black doctors and nurses.20 “Since the absorption of Black men and women in any appreciable numbers in existing so-called white hospitals is not likely at any time in the foreseeable future, the leaders of both racial groups, in the interest of the general health of the city, face the necessity of maintaining a first-class institution where they can be trained,” hospital officials stated to the Tribune. 21 They largely based their argument for a new hospital building on the steep institutional barriers faced by Black physicians in access to medical education, specialty training and hospital jobs, and the subsequent impact on Black health outcomes.22

Mercy Douglass

https://mercydouglass.org/about/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Writer Russell F. Minton attributes the success of the merger to the hard work of persons dedicated to the institution, including the reorganized Board of Directors, chaired by Judge Herbert E. Millen, and the leadership of Dr. Wilbur H. Strickland, the first medical director of the Mercy-Douglass Hospital. In his 1951 article, Minton called attention to its services in emergencies, delivery of babies, medical training, and professional opportunities for Negro doctors.

Herbert E. Millen

https://www.pmconline.org/herbert-e-millen

Herbert E. Millen was the first black judge appointed in Pennsylvania (1947). He served on the Philadelphia Municipal Court and was known for his integrity and deep compassion for people in the Philadelphia community and beyond.

In "A Tribute to Herbert E. Millen" published in the Lincoln University Bulletin, Rev. E. Luther Cunningham of Reeves Memorial Church reflected, "To Herbert E. Millen, men and women were not races or classes or groups. They were human beings blundering toward a more ideal society...He could fight for what he believed to be right, with an unwearyingly persistence that never counted the odds. he could stand up and carry on in the face of opposition, misrepresentation, repulse, even failure of those on whom he counted to measure up to his own shining standards and expectations."

DMU Timestamp: February 26, 2025 22:37