Legacy Keepers: Interview with Charles H. Clark

Object Details

Scope and Contents: Through an oral history interview, Charles H. Clark, born in Charleston, West Virginia, talks about segregation in West Virginia as "more by accommodation rather than by law." He speaks of his well-educated parents who value education, and his siblings who all attended medical school. His family traveled a lot and the Great Depression did not much affect them. Clark found school easy, skipping several grades, and ultimately attending Howard University medical school. He talks about his work for the Navy and Public Health Service; the Old Freedman's Hospital; labor union as a surgical consultant; and his own surgical practice. Clark also speaks of the introduction of the Medicare/Medicaid bill under Johnson; the differences between integrated hospitals and segregated hospitals; changes he witnessed in the medical field over his 50-year career, particularly health care financing and modern technology; ethics - medical and general; how health care of African Americans has changed from his childhood to the present; and integration which has caused African Americans to spread out and disconnect. Clark also describes how he met his wife - Jeannine Clark, and talks about his children and grandchildren.; Interview. Part of the National Visionary Leadership Project 2003. Dated 20030604.

Type: Archival materials; Video recordings; Oral histories (document genres); Interviews

Topic: African Americans; African American families; Civic leaders; Medical care; Physicians; African American physicians; Segregation

Place: West Virginia; Anacostia (Washington, D.C.); Washington (D.C.); United States

Citation: Legacy Keepers: Interview of Charles H. Clark, National Visionary Leadership Project 2003, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

General: Title transcribed from cover page of the video recording's transcript.