Clark has collected volumes of information on St. Agnes' staff and students, the medical techniques and training available there. She has compiled an interactive manual about the hospital and the story of segregated health care. It includes photos of students, miniaturized copies of student applications and a handwritten 19th-century law making it illegal for a Black person to learn to read and write.
In 1896, the year that St. Agnes opened its doors in a vacant house on St. Augustine's campus, the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the ``separate but equal'' doctrine constitutional. That sanctioned racially segregated facilities and services in nearly every facet of life.
In most cities, Blacks received care in small sections of White hospitals or were denied public care altogether. A few cities, such as New Orleans, had Black hospitals. But only a tiny fraction of them were teaching facilities where Black doctors and nurses were trained or where Blacks could have surgery.
After Clark began to connect some of the dots that she uncovered in her research, the school's trustees decided to apply for federal preservation grants and work to raise the funds to restore the building.
— Associated Press
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