James Lee Dickey: An Analysis of One African-American's Leadership in Jim Crow Texas

Fixing the Problems

After the typhoid crisis, Dr. and Mrs. Dickey purchased the boarding house from the city and in 1935 opened a “15-bed modern hospital – equipped with a well-lighted, safe operation room, a large autoclave sterilizer, instruments of various kinds, and small laboratory for routine examinations of urine, microscopic examination and blood counts.” The Dickey Clinic, so named because African-Americans still associated hospitals with life-threatening surgery and death, was the new standard of health care for African Americans and clients came from Milam, Williamson, Lee, and Bell counties for treatment. It was the only facility serving all races for almost 100 miles. Dr. Dickey had every reason to be proud; he had fulfilled his goal of creating a practice similar, if not better, than his inspiration, the Hunter Clinic in Marlin.

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