tices of this type where Federal funds are to be allotted is because of the fact that these practices cannot be attacked strategically at the local level." Dr. E. B. Perry, special representative of the Houston Medical Forum, has set forth condtions in the City-County Hosiptal which has applied for a grant for $1,500,000. His letter to Dr. William Ossenfort of the United States Public Health Service is as follows:

"This letter is one of protest, due to the discriminatory policy, which has been developed during the years at our City-County institution, the Jefferson Davis Hospital. There is a proposed City-County Hospital, which is to cost at least $15 million, and application has been filed with the Department of Health and Welfare for a $1,500,000 grant to assist with the construction costs.

"It would appear that Government money having been released for assistance in such projects, should not implement discriminatory practices.

"Traditionally the Negro doctor has been omitted in hospital staff organiza tions, both in the North and South, for various and sundry reasons. Encourag ingly enough, however, in Texas, many communities have included the Negro doctor in the City-County Hospitals with apparently full participating staff priv ileges.

"In Houston the city charter points out, "One must be a member of the Harris County Medical Society (white), in order to practice in the City-County Hospital." An attempt was made some few years ago, after 35 years of 'watchful waiting,' by the Negro physicians to become members of the Harris County Medical Society. All applicants were denied membership due to a State Medical Association requirement. The State Medical Association denied membership privileges due to the county society restriction. Thus the buck has been adequately passed form one organization to the other throughout the years.

"The Houston City Council has refused to change the charter to read. 'Any physician who is a member of the Harris County Medical Society (white) or Houston Medical Forum (colored) is eligible for the Jefferson Davis Hospital Staff'."

"The city fathers in Houston, subsequent to the Negro physicians making applications on several organizational fronts, turned over the Jefferson Davis Hospital stock and barrel to the Baylor Univesity School of Medicine.

"Staff membership in the Jefferson Davis Hospital mitigates faculty affil!ation in the Baylor School of Medicine. Thus, the Negro physician is excluded on this subterfugal front.

"We feel we have a just and honorable cause, because many indigents of all races, colors, and creeds populate our tax-supported hospitals. Great physicians develop in the shadows of abundant clinical material.

"We thank you for your consideration."

We have asked Mrs. Hobby to withhold approval of the Houston grant unless the hospital authorities agree that they will abandon their present policy of forcing colored doctors to channel their patients through white doctors if such patients are to be admitted to the hospital. We believe it is only fair that ary hospital which receives money collected from all of the people from the country as taxes, should be willing to open its doors to patients, physicians, nurses, and other medical persons without regard to race, religion, or national origin. Mrs Hobby, in a letter dated February 1, 1954, addressed to Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, has taken the position that at the time the Hospital Survey and Construction Act was passed, the Congress rejected an amendment which would have prevented this kind of discrimination. Hence, she concludes that her Agency cannot withhold funds in such cases. The Health, Education, and Welfare's general counsel, Mr. Parke M. Banta, supports Mrs. Hobby's position in a letter dated March 4, 1954, which is as follows:

"The Secretary has asked me to reply to your letter of February 11, 1954 in further reference to aid under the Hospital Survey and Construction Act for the proposed City-County Hospital project at Houston, Tex. You are par ticularly concerned with the question of the authority of the Federal Govern ment to refuse to approve an application for Federal aid under the act where the hospital does not allow colored doctors to use its facilities for treatment of their patients.

"As indicated in Dr. Cronin's letter to you of January 8, 1954, the staffing policies of hospitals fall within the scope of section 635 of the act which provides that, except as otherwise specifically provided therein, no Federal officer or employee shall have the right to exercise any supervision or control over the administration, personnel, maintenance, or operation of a hospital receiving funds under the act. The provisions of the act requiring assurances as to not

discrimination relate only to the provision of hospital facilities for patients and not to staffing practices. Efforts at the time of enactment of the statute to extend the nondiscrimination provisions to the staffing practices of hospitals were unsuccessful.

"You refer to the discussion of the proposed amendment offered by Senator Murray (Congressional Record of December 11, 1945, pp. 11797-8). Your attention is also invited to the discussion of a proposed amendment by Senator Langer which was similarly rejected (Congressional Record, December 11, 1945, p. 11799). For your convenience, extracts from the floor debate on these amendments are enclosed.

"In the light of this legislative history, it is clear that the Congress did not, by the provisions of nondiscrimination, intend to confer on the Surgeon General authority to withhold approval of an application solely because the applicant refuses to permit colored doctors to use the hospital facilities, and this view has been consistently followed in the administration of the act. For this reason, regardless of the desirability of permitting the Surgeon General to withhold approval of an application in such cases, further congressional action would seem necessary to authorize such action on his part."

While we do not agree with Mr. Banta's interpretation, it is apparent that all doubt would be removed if the Congress adopts the revision we have proposed. Therefore, we urge that this subcommitttee accept our proposal and work for its inclusion when the proposed legislation reaches the full committee.

Mr. MITCHELL. In summary of my statement, Mr. Chairman, I will, first of all, identify myself as Clarence Mitchell, director of the Washington Bureau of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

My testimony is designed to try to enlist your help in remedying a problem that I am very much afraid we are not going to be able to remedy unless some specific person like you and other members of the committee decide to do something about it.

Senator PURTELL. May I interrupt?

Mr. MITCHELL. Yes, sir.

Senator PURTELL. Did you supply the committee with copies of your statement previously?

Mr. MITCHELL. Yes, sir. They are here.

Senator PURTELL. May I have it?

Thank you.

Mr. MITCHELL. We propose that there be added to Public Law 725, passed by the 79th Congress, certain revisions in section 622 (f). Those are set forth on the first page of our testimony. The new language that we suggest is underlined.

When the law was passed back in 1946, the present language was inserted. The purpose of that language was to provide that people of minority groups would receive the same benefits in the hospital program that others received.

As we point out in our testimony, the years have gone by and there has been no appreciable improvement in the treatment of those people in the States where the problem is acute.

We have incorporated in our testimony some figures which were supplied when hearings were being conducted on bills to limit debate in the United States Senate. I have included them because they were presented by a very respected Member of the Senate, Senator Hayden, and, of course, because they represent figures that cannot be contested. They show that the Northern States, a selected group of them, one of which is your State, Connecticut, carry the major burden of the taxes in this country.

Senator PURTELL. I want to make sure that the reporter gets that last statement.

Mr. MITCHELL. In contrast, there are Southern States which only a small part of the tax burden.

The figures are set forth.

carry

I think your State and the others in the group that carry a heavy burden take care of about 50 percent of the internal revenue and the Southern States combined take care of about 9 percent of it.

Senator PURTELL. I think the figures are something like this, if it will help and I may want to correct these because they may be greater; I am usually on the conservative side: Our contribution, I think, was a billion one hundred million in taxes, from which we got back roughly about 31 million in grants in aid.

Mr. MITCHELL. That is excellent, Senator, because it supports the point I was trying to make. It supports the fact that the States, such as Connecticut and the others, which most of the tax money come from, do not insist that there be written into the laws certain types of language which will make for discrimination. On the other hand, the States that pay the least amount of money into the Federal Treasury and presumably get the most out in the form of grants-in-aid insist that we equivocate on the language of the laws, so that it makes it pos sible for those who wish to discriminate, to discriminate against people for no other reason than the fact they are colored.

We have in our testimony a statement about the President's wishes on Federal assistance. He has made his position very clear on a number of occasions. He has said that wherever Federal money goes there also should be no discrimination, and the Federal Government certainly should not promote discrimination on the basis of race.

On the other hand, we have one of his principal administrators, Mrs Hobby, who is the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, who has recently made a ruling that we will develop in our testimony which has the effect not only of supporting discrimination with Federal funds but also forcing colored people into the position where they will discriminate against colored doctors in favor of white doctors. We have selected two States which illustrate the problem that we face.

Senator PURTELL. You are speaking now on this Senate bill 3114: is that right?

Mr. MITCHELL. That is right.

Senator PURTELL. Fine.

Mr. MITCHELL. That is in the grants-in-aid to hospitals for hospital construction. We had asked that we be heard on that point.

Senator PURTELL. That is right. You are free to discuss any of the pending bills before this committee.

Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you.

Senator PURTELL. I knew you were departing now from 3114, getting into the other health bill.

Mr. MITCHELL. That is really what we are interested in.
Senator PURTELL. Fine.

Mr. MITCHELL. We take the State of Alabama and the State of Texas because they point up the problem that we face.

In Alabama, the city of Birmingham has had assistance from the Federal Government in a hospital program almost since the incep tion of the program. As soon as the Federal money was given, to comply with the existing part of the law which is supposed to protect

minority groups against discrimination, the city of Birmingham built a separate entrance for colored people to its hospital. It has a separate elevator that colored patients must use no matter how sick they may be, and that same elevator is used for the hauling of garbage up and down on the hospital floors. In other words, Birmingham has made it a little worse with the help of the Federal Government than it was before.

In addition, the city of Birmingham is now seeking more help from the Federal Government. It has a huge medical center program, which is wonderful from a social standpoint, but terrible in the way that it is being carried out.

There are about a thousand or more colored families living in an area of that city. All of those families will be cleared out. The city will build a fine, new health center. Under that plan, however, the same conditions which exist today will be sort of streamlined and exist on a wider scale.

Not only are the colored people barred from using certain entrances and this is by city ordinances which require this-but also the colored doctors who would serve their patient may not use the facilities of those hospitals, despite the fact that the State of Connecticut and the State of New York and others are helping to pay for it. The rules of Alabama prevail and these colored doctors may not take their patients in.

The figures set forth by the colored doctors in Birmingham are included in our testimony, and they show that there are some 18 colored doctors serving about 140,000 colored people who are in that city, and they have an even worse picture with reference to hospitals because they say that there are less than 30 hospital beds available to that 140,000 colored people in the city of Birmingham.

Now, the only way a colored doctor can get his patient into a white hospital is if a white doctor will let the colored man turn his patient over to him. Then the patient is treated in the hospital. After the patient leaves the hospital, he goes back home. Then the colored doctor resumes treatment.

Now, this would be bad enough if it were just a local function, but this is actually sanctioned by the existing law and by the latest ruling that I mentioned that Mrs. Hobby has made in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

That ruling

Senator PURTELL. Have you outlined that, or are you going to speak on that ruling now?

Mr. MITCHELL, Yes.

Senator PURTELL. That is fine. That is what I wanted.

Mr. MITCHELL. That ruling came about in this fashion: We had letters from doctors down in Texas, whose names are listed in our testimony, Dr. J. O. Wyatt, of Amarillo; Dr. E. B. Perry, of Houston, Tex.

The city of Houston is seeking a grant of $1,500,000 to construct an addition to the city-county hospital, which is known as the Jefferson Davis Hospital. The only way that a colored doctor can take a patient into that hospital is to do the same thing they do in Birmingham, and that is to get a white doctor to front for him, more or less. The colored doctors have tried to get admitted to the staff. I have, for example, a letter from Dr. Perry.

Senator PURTELL. Pardon me. Once the patient is admitted, the colored patient, then the white doctor continues to be his doctor; is that right?

Mr. MITCHELL. He continues to be his doctor as long as he is in the hospital.

Senator PURTELL. Yes. That is what I mean.

Mr. MITCHELL. Then when he comes out the posthospital treatment can be taken care of by the colored doctor.

Now, I have here a letter dated December 22, 1947, which was sent by Dr. Perry to the Jefferson Davis Hospital, making a formal request that he be permitted to take part in staff privileges. He points out that he is a graduate of the University of Michigan, with an A. B. degree. He has an M. D. from Howard University, 2 years of internship at Municipal in St. Louis; 2 years of externship for the Kansas City Tuberculosis Hospital; 11 years of surgical service at the Municipal Hospital in Kansas City. He was medical director for the Whetley Provident Hospital in Kansas City. He was a physician to open-air schools for 4 years; he was a diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners, and he is a bona fide of all local, State, and National organizations of a medical nature to which he could be admitted.

He sent that as a formal request for use of hospital privileges at Jefferson Davis.

He got a reply on April 5 from

Senator PURTELL. That is April 5, 1947?

Mr. MITCHELL, 1948.

Senator PURTELL. 1948.

Mr. MITCHELL. He sent his letter December 22, 1947, and he got back a reply on April 5, 1948, from Dr. Donald M. Peyton, who is the chief of staff at Jefferson Davis, which was very brief. It says:

Your application for membership on the staff at Jefferson Davis Hospital has been reviewed by the executive committee.

The constitution and bylaws of the hospital, which is a part of the city charter. requires that each applicant must be a member of the Harris County Medical Society in good standing. Inasmuch as your application does not indicate that you fulfill this requirement, we regret that the executive committee cannot recommend your appointment for a position on the staff.

In other words, the only way a doctor can practice at that hospital is to be a member of a society which bars him solely because of his

race.

The other doctor who wrote to us pointed out that he had exactly the same problem in Amarillo, where the hospital there, the Nortwest Texas Hospital, had about 4 years ago gotten a Federal grant of $1,750,000, and they had expanded their hospital so that it is now a 225 to 250-bed hospital; but that hospital also says that colored people may not take their patients there unless white doctors front for them. We placed this problem formally before the Department of Health. Education, and Welfare and asked that they withhold the Houston grant unless the Houston officials would agree that the colored doctors would have a right to treat their patients in the hospital. Obviously, that would have been a precedent which would have applied to all these hospitals.

Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, of New York, also made a similar request.