Thanks to our partners at Winston-Salem African American Archive, we are pleased to announce the addition of materials related to African-American military and medical history in and around Winston-Salem, N.C. These latest additions are from two different records groups: the first one related to Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C., and the other covering military history from primarily the 1940s. The majority of these new additions are photographs that document African American community care and service. 41 photographs from the Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital collection and 25 photographs from the military archive combine for a total of 66 new photographs that are a must-see to DigitalNC.
Opened in 1938, the Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital was the first public hospital in Winston-Salem to exclusively serve the African American community and ensure that African American patients had access to quality healthcare. The Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital was also the first to employ African American physicians, who assumed complete managerial control over the hospital eight years after it opened. Additionally, the hospital played a pivotal role in teaching new generations of African American medical professionals through its nursing education program and its physicians’ unparalleled involvement in African American medical education around the city and region. Just years after it was built, the 100-bed hospital quickly expanded to 190 beds, making it one of the largest African American hospitals in the country at the time. Although the hospital ceased operations in 1970 and was demolished by 1973, its impact on Winston-Salem is far from forgotten and can be seen throughout the new additions to DigitalNC.
The military records and photographs pertain to African American service members from Winston-Salem and the short-lived Morris Field Air Base in Charlotte, N.C. Known as Charlotte Municipal Airport throughout the 1930s, the site of Morris Field Air Base was converted and expanded for military use by the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941. The base was closed in 1946, and the site would later become Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Two African American companies at the Morris Field Air Base included the 459th Signal Battalion and the 11th Aviation Service Squadron. The Morris L. Slaughter (128th) American Legion Post of Winston-Salem is also featured in these latest pictures.
A final treasure found in these newly digitized photographs includes the records of African American women who served during World War II. Featured on the left is a portrait of Winston-Salem native Savannah Johnson who served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps / Women’s Army Corps (WAAC / WAC) during the 1940s. WAAC, which was started in 1941, was renamed the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1943 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved legislation to fully combine this service organization with the Army to allow these troops to serve overseas. Another picture of African American women serving in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps features ten women posed in uniform together. Also represented in the records from the Winston-Salem African American Archive are other essential roles that African American women played in the war effort like working with the United Service Organization (USO) and producing supplies.
More information about our partner, Winston-Salem African American Archive, can be found on their Facebook page here.
More materials, including yearbooks, photographs, maps, and additional newspaper issues can be found on the Winston-Salem African American Archive’s contributor page linked here.
Visitors can also browse two DigitalNC exhibits, African-American Newspapers in North Carolina and North Carolina African American High Schools, that feature materials from Winston-Salem African American Archive.
