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As late as 1929, there were no room accommodations for black patients in Evansville Hospitals
Accommodations were first provided by St. Marys and Deaconess , which was in the basement with all black patients together regardless of their illness. Men, women and children all in the same basement quarters near the furnace room. In one of the hospitals, the patients were separated from the furnace by chicken wire.
Maternity cases, heart patients, pneumonia patients, those who were emergency cases such as cut, shot, beaten or any type of injury were all sent to the basement together in one big ward.
The black population of the city, under the leadership of professional men of their race, hoped to establish a hospital here in the near future. Dr. E. M. Baylor, Chairman of the project’s committee, announced a public meeting to be held at the Little Hope Baptist Church the following Friday night, to stimulate further plans on the project.
No definite plans were made regarding the location and cost of the hospital but the money, Baylor said, would be raised by public subscription.
Teams to canvas the city for funds were organized at the Little Hope Baptist Church meeting.
The rest of the committee, headed by Dr. Baylor included Dr. J. Jackson, Dr. H. R. Thompson, The Rev. L. S. Smith, the Rev. R. J. Miller, Mrs. Emma Mockabee, Mrs. A. Roach and Mrs. Lula Bernard.
The Walker Annex hospital for blacks came about through the efforts of the Western Kentucky coal mines who found it necessary to find a place where black injured miners could be treated, since there was no hospital in Kentucky to treat them.
In 1929, the Western Kentucky coal mines purchased the building which now stands on the northwest corner of Elliott and Sycamore which they furnished as a hospital, was also available to black Evansvillians.
After the hosptial closed the building became a hotel in 1960, before being razed in 1984.
