Sister Virginia Yeager, who heads the Pastoral Care Center at Saint Francis Hospital, describes how the hospital's nursing staff was desegregated 60 years ago this spring.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- "We were the first desegregated hospital in Charleston. We made national news," said Sister Virginia Yeager, who heads Saint Francis Hospital's pastoral center.
"The strike of 1951 is a piece of our history, a hallmark of Saint Francis Hospital."
In recent weeks, Sister Ginny -- as she is known to all her colleagues -- has been thinking about those events covered by the national press, which began 60 years ago this spring.
Back in early 1950, Saint Francis hired three black nurses, generating controversy. On May 18, 1951, 20 white nurses walked off their jobs.
"Those nurses demanded we dismiss the black nurses. When the nurses walked out, it created huge issues for our administration," Yeager said.
"Some of our sisters from throughout the state, and some from Pittsburgh, came down to help take care of our patients," she said.
None of the 20 nurses who walked out ever returned to Saint Francis, then a 140-bed hospital.
"The nurses got many of the doctors to support their cause, but I don't know if any of them left," Yeager said. "Some doctors supported the black nurses."
Yeager said those events are part of the culture that built Saint Francis, reflecting the principles of the "congregation of sisters who took that stand, including Sister Helen Clare Bauerbach, head of the hospital.
"We tried to do the right thing. The culture of the hospital was to do the right thing, no matter what the cost."
Saint Francis was already caring for patients of all races before the dispute about hiring black nurses.
News coverage
Interracial Review, a monthly published by the Catholic Interracial Council of New York, wrote about the strike. Frank Coniff cited its coverage in a newspaper article published by the New York Journal American in 1951.
Coniff praised "the magnificent stand taken by the St. Francis Hospital in Charleston. . . .
"The 'Interracial Review' points out that the gallant position taken by the nuns of St. Francis Hospital has national significance at a time when the grave shortage of nurses is partly attributable to the long-standing prejudice in America which bars Negro girls from entering the profession."
During the dispute, Saint Francis received strong support from Charleston church leaders, West Virginia State College students and the Kanawha County Board of Education.
"The Charleston Gazette, which fully supported Sister Clare and the hospital, summed it all up," Coniff wrote.
"Nowhere in the Nightingale oath [which all nurses must take] is there mention of religious, color or political belief."
U.S. District Court Judge John F.X. McGohey wrote to Sister Helen on June 22, 1951, "Your magnificent Christianity in refusing to dismiss the Negro nurses from your hospital has been a great inspiration. . . . You made a great contribution to true democracy and Americanism."
Upholding its principles
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- "We were the first desegregated hospital in Charleston. We made national news," said Sister Virginia Yeager, who heads Saint Francis Hospital's pastoral center.
"The strike of 1951 is a piece of our history, a hallmark of Saint Francis Hospital."
In recent weeks, Sister Ginny -- as she is known to all her colleagues -- has been thinking about those events covered by the national press, which began 60 years ago this spring.
Back in early 1950, Saint Francis hired three black nurses, generating controversy. On May 18, 1951, 20 white nurses walked off their jobs.
"Those nurses demanded we dismiss the black nurses. When the nurses walked out, it created huge issues for our administration," Yeager said.
"Some of our sisters from throughout the state, and some from Pittsburgh, came down to help take care of our patients," she said.
None of the 20 nurses who walked out ever returned to Saint Francis, then a 140-bed hospital.
"The nurses got many of the doctors to support their cause, but I don't know if any of them left," Yeager said. "Some doctors supported the black nurses."
Yeager said those events are part of the culture that built Saint Francis, reflecting the principles of the "congregation of sisters who took that stand, including Sister Helen Clare Bauerbach, head of the hospital.
"We tried to do the right thing. The culture of the hospital was to do the right thing, no matter what the cost."
Saint Francis was already caring for patients of all races before the dispute about hiring black nurses.
News coverage
Interracial Review, a monthly published by the Catholic Interracial Council of New York, wrote about the strike. Frank Coniff cited its coverage in a newspaper article published by the New York Journal American in 1951.
Coniff praised "the magnificent stand taken by the St. Francis Hospital in Charleston. . . .
"The 'Interracial Review' points out that the gallant position taken by the nuns of St. Francis Hospital has national significance at a time when the grave shortage of nurses is partly attributable to the long-standing prejudice in America which bars Negro girls from entering the profession."
During the dispute, Saint Francis received strong support from Charleston church leaders, West Virginia State College students and the Kanawha County Board of Education.
"The Charleston Gazette, which fully supported Sister Clare and the hospital, summed it all up," Coniff wrote.
"Nowhere in the Nightingale oath [which all nurses must take] is there mention of religious, color or political belief."
U.S. District Court Judge John F.X. McGohey wrote to Sister Helen on June 22, 1951, "Your magnificent Christianity in refusing to dismiss the Negro nurses from your hospital has been a great inspiration. . . . You made a great contribution to true democracy and Americanism."
Upholding its principles
The dispute at Saint Francis erupted a few years before the Rev. Martin Luther King and the civil-rights movement swept the country.
"In 1951, our hospital was taking a stand on behalf of black nurses when segregation was so rampant," Yeager said. "That is why the story got picked up nationally."
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Wheeling stated, "St. Francis Hospital will continue to uphold Christian principles of charity and justice as well as the spirit of the United States Constitution."
Ruth Anderson, Ruth Ricks and Mildred Galyean were the black nurses hired in 1950.
Anderson first worked as a nurse on the medical-surgical floor, then became supervisor of that unit. Later, Anderson became director of nursing for the whole hospital and also taught at the Saint Francis School of Nursing.
Back in 1995, Anderson recalled that many white patients at Saint Francis were sympathetic to the black nurses.
"They said, 'You're human just like I am. I'm white, you're black -- we're the same, except for the color,'" Anderson told Ben Calwell, who published a profile of her in Metro West in January 1995.
After graduating from Garnet High School in Charleston, Anderson attended West Virginia State College, then won a scholarship to the Homer G. Phillips School of Nursing in St. Louis.
After graduating, Anderson returned home and applied for nursing jobs at all the hospitals in Charleston.
"The only one that answered my application was Saint Francis," Anderson told Calwell.
Yeager praised the courage of the sisters who took a stand against segregation. "It is part of the history of our congregation that we are very proud of. "
The new black nurses received threats.
"Twenty of our 23 nurses walked out, and the three black nurses were fearful for their lives. In the midst of that, those three nurses were advised to go home after some white nurses threatened to kill them," Yeager said.
"The hospital said, 'Go home, and we will pay you for your time.' "
The strike ended, Yeager said, when Saint Francis hired new nurses.
"This is a history we can be proud of -- who we are and what we stand for -- caring for people. We were doing the right thing, no matter what the costs. Those are values that don't change with time."
Yeager, who grew up in Wheeling, came to Saint Francis in 1991. Before that, she received three years of training in clinical pastoral education in Providence, R.I.
Saint Francis Hospital was founded in 1913 by the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling, with care provided by the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration from Williamsville, N.Y.
At that time, Charleston had three other hospitals: Capital Hill Hospital (now CAMC General), McMillan Hospital and Kanawha Valley Hospital (now CAMC Women and Children's).
Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5164.
