Hospital that tended to wounded Black civil rights activists receives state landmark status

For decades before Danville’s hospitals were integrated, the city’s Black community relied on Winslow Hospital to be treated for everything from minor ailments to tuberculosis. Winslow was especially instrumental to the city’s civil rights movement , when it treated injured protesters who had faced police brutality.

Winslow Hospital is now part of the Virginia Landmarks Register, the state’s list of culturally, architecturally and historically significant places.

It was one of 12 sites that the state’s Board of Historic Resources approved to become part of the register in June, and the only one in Southside. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources will now nominate these sites to the National Register of Historic Places.

“Winslow Hospital was essential to the needs of local African Americans to provide medical care during the segregationist era,” said Karice Luck-Brimmer, a Black historian and genealogist in Danville.

Winslow is in the city’s Almagro community, which was one of the very few all-Black towns in the United States until it was annexed by the city of Danville in the 1930s.

“It’s so exciting to see that Winslow Hospital is finally getting its recognition as a landmark,” said Luck-Brimmer.

Of the more than 95,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places, less than 2% are focused on Black history and culture, according to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

“We can all do our part where we are to help preserve our history as many of these sites are already in critical danger and run the risk of being torn down,” Luck-Brimmer said.

The almost 8,400-square-foot hospital is now vacant but was purchased by the Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority last year. Eventually, the city would like to see it redeveloped, though there are no official plans for this yet.

‘One of the best’ in Virginia

The hospital was named after Albert Winslow, the second Black doctor to open up a practice in Danville. It opened its doors in 1941 and operated for the next 30 years until the former Danville Memorial Hospital was integrated in 1971.

Before Winslow was built, Black patients had to go to the Providence Hospital, the first Black hospital in Danville, which operated for 21 years. But Providence lacked proper medical equipment and was in bad condition, according to the landmark register application for Winslow.

“The facility and services [at Providence] were considered inadequate, outdated, and overcrowded, causing many African Americans to seek health care outside of Danville when possible,” the application reads.

The community had been requesting a dedicated Black hospital for about two years before it was approved by the Danville City Council and Danville Academy of Medicine.

“Providence closed the same week Winslow opened and four patients were transferred to the newer facility,” Luck-Brimmer said.

Winslow opened with 35 beds, though it could hold up to 45 patients in emergencies, the application says. It offered a variety of health care services, including pediatrics, labor and delivery and treatment for occupational injuries.

It also had an isolation ward for tuberculosis patients. This disease disproportionately affected minority communities in the 20th century due to lack of available medical care.

The only other medical institution in Virginia that treated Black patients with tuberculosis was the Piedmont Sanatorium in Burkeville, about an hour and a half from Danville.

“Winslow Hospital was designated to include a tuberculosis ward due to African American patients not being admitted to the Piedmont Sanatorium because it was full,” the application says.

Before antibiotics were used to treat tuberculosis, typical treatment included isolation, rest, fresh air and a good diet — things that influenced the design of Winslow Hospital. The building included a kitchen, isolated areas and plenty of windows.

“The hospital was considered very modern and one of the best African American hospitals in the state of Virginia at the time of opening,” the application says.

It was staffed only by African American physicians and staff because of segregation laws.

Dozens of Black protesters, mostly teenagers, were treated at Winslow after being injured during the movement.

The violence began on June 10, 1963, a day that became known as Bloody Monday, and continued throughout that summer. The application calls Bloody Monday “the most violent occurrence in Virginia associated with the civil rights movement.”

Protesters were hit with fire hoses and nightsticks by policemen and deputized municipal workers in attempts to tamp down the protests.

The protesters were shuttled to Winslow Hospital by Black community members and businesses, said Dorothy Moore-Batson, who participated in Danville’s civil rights movement of 1963 when she was a teenager,

“The local Black funeral homes came [to the protests] and picked up people in their hearses and cars and took them to Winslow Hospital, where the nurses did the best they could to take care of people,” Moore-Batson said.

Many of the protesters treated at Winslow Hospital during the movement were discharged without a record being made of their injuries, according to a contemporaneous pamphlet written by Dorothy Zellner, a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who was in Danville during Bloody Monday.

But based on the documentation that does exist, injuries included cuts to the head, broken wrists, back injuries, dislocated shoulders, abrasions, dizziness and vomiting, according to the application.

“Having the Winslow Hospital, in some cases, played a big part in whether the abused protesters survived,” Luck-Brimmer said.

Plans for the future

Today, Winslow Hospital stands vacant. The exterior of the building is in good condition, though the interior needs repairs, according to the application.

The hospital still has its original wooden windows, door frames and baseboards. It also has original mosaic wall tile in restrooms and mosaic tile flooring in the delivery rooms, which remains “in exquisite condition,” the application says.

But all of these features have been covered, concealed or painted over, including some of the glass windows and wall tiles.

Last year, local documentarian Jonathan Parker took former protesters inside the old hospital building to film them walking through the hallways for a documentary project commemorating the 60th anniversary of Bloody Monday.

It was the first time in many years that the Winslow doors had been opened, Parker said.

“You’re walking these hallways and this is where they took people that braved the billy clubs and the hoses and the brutality,” Parker said. “This is where they went for treatment. And it’s really something to walk through that space and experience that.”

DRHA bought the building in April 2023 for $150,000. It has announced no official plans for redevelopment. But regardless of future plans for the building, it will be honored for its history, the organization said at the time.

Ken Larking, Danville’s city manager, said in a release from the city that he looks forward to Winslow being put back to beneficial use.

“This historic designation will improve the chances that the building is redeveloped and becomes a contributing part of the Almagro neighborhood,” Larking said.

The city’s PLAN Danville effort, an initiative to overhaul the existing comprehensive plan, puts special emphasis on this neighborhood, he said.

“We know from resident feedback how important this structure is to them and Danville,” Larking said.

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