Dr. J. Edward Perry
*The birth of J. Edward Perry in 1870 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black Physician.
Perry was born to former slaves in Clarksville, Texas, who encouraged him to receive a good education. He graduated from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1895. In 1903, Dr. Perry moved to Kansas City and opened an office. He and other local African American physicians joined in their struggle to create professional hospitals for non-white patients. At that time, Kansas City was rigidly segregated, and influential people in the white-American medical community opposed Dr. Perry and his associates’ plans.
In 1910, Dr. Perry opened a private hospital, the Perry Sanitarium and Training School for Nurses. There, he developed solid medical and pediatric units to serve the minority community. The sanitarium became Wheatley-Provident Hospital, a public institution, in 1916. The hospital served the community for the last 50 years of Dr. Perry’s life. Perry knew hospitals were needed to train Black physicians and nurses and provide quality health care to the Kansas City Black community.
Because of his dedication, many Black doctors and nurses received quality training and saved many patients' lives. He died in 1962.
Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History
Volume 1, ISBN #0-02-897345-3, Pg 175
Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith, Cornel West
