In her letter to the editor about the naming of Clark Street School, Mrs. Heneritta Clark refers to Dr. Charles Drew, a great pioneer in medicine, and attributes his untimely death to the fact that he was refused treatment at a “white” hospital in 1950.
Dr. Drew’s widow and his family worked for years to correct this misinformation and to change myth into historical fact. I am lending my hand to that effort. Amazingly enough, there is a small connection to Clark Street School.
When my daughter attended Clark Street, they used a new history book and the story about Dr. Drew’s death was included. She showed it to us because it said a hospital in Burlington refused to treat Dr. Drew. Other students in Burlington whose parents worked at the hospital did the same.
The hospital happened to be the one my father-in-law had administered since 1949. He wrote the publisher of the textbook and found out that Whitney Young, who had drowned in Nigeria, had given them the story. When given the correct information, the publishers removed that story from their text book.
The facts are that Dr. Drew was treated professionally but died in the emergency room before he could be admitted to Alamance General Hospital. One of the other two doctors with him on the trip was admitted to the hospital. Dr. Drew’s widow wrote to Marvin Yount and commended him on the treatment her husband received. In later years they worked together to get a historical marker to commemorate the sight of the car crash and Dr. Drew’s widow came to that unveiling. The Drew Memorial Marker is on Highway 49 north of Burlington.
Recently I met Spencie Love who researched and wrote at book about Dr. Drew. She was encouraged by Dr. John Hope Franklin to correct the myth. If you want the entire story you should read One Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew.
Dr. Drew may have had the accident because he was fatigued since there were few accommodations for traveling African-Americans, but he did not die because he was refused treatment at a “white” hospital. This is another part of the myth since the hospital had always had both patients, nurses, and doctors who were African-American.
I am sure Mrs. Clark will welcome changing this myth into facts.
As for the naming, I always thought that Shepard School would be a fitting name for the new elementary. That would have a double meaning and honor Mrs. Carolyn Green’s family and provide a mission statement for the new school to shepherd young people.
Elissa P. Yount
Henderson