Posted In Awards and Recognition on February 06, 2024
As we celebrate Black History Month, we are sharing profiles of prominent Black individuals who have left a lasting, positive impact on TidalHealth's history. This week we feature Louise Eva Whittington, the first Black patient admitted to the main part of McCready Memorial Hospital in the 1960s.
Mrs. Whittington was a force for change in Crisfield. She graduated from a segregated school system and then headed to Morgan State University. But her father passed away and money was tight, so she changed plans and went to nursing school in Philadelphia instead. She later became the first Black nurse to work for a white doctor – Dr. Norman Barr, who treated all different kinds of patients.
After returning to Somerset County, she married Dr. H. DeWayne Whittington, her childhood sweetheart – they ended up married for just shy of 55 years, until he passed away in 2012.
Mrs. Whittington’s husband helped move civil rights forward in Sussex County for many years, so it wasn’t surprising that when his wife was hospitalized in the “Colored Ward,” he spoke up.
“He wanted to move me because it was the best thing for me,” Mrs. Whittington recalled in a 2021 interview with TidalHealth. “They put all kinds of people in the ward, it didn’t matter what was wrong with them.” Women with infections, women who had just had babies, women recovering from surgeries – if they were Black, they all went to the same area, and it had been that way since the hospital opened in 1923.
Crisfield’s neighborly character served it well at this time – the historical integration happened without much drama. Dr. Whittington spoke with the hospital administrator, who simply agreed to move Louise to the main hospital. Integration was a national trend at the time, and simply asking was all it took to break down the barrier – almost. The routine was hard to adjust to right away.
“They put a screen in front of my door,” Mrs. Whittington recalled. “I told them, ‘I don’t have the black plague!’ And then my minister came, and they wouldn’t let him in.” But after a conversation with administration, her minister, who was Black, was also permitted in. And thus, McCready hospital – now TidalHealth McCready Pavilion – became integrated.
Mrs. Whittington felt her practice of treating everyone with dignity and respect served her well and didn’t mind talking about the past and remembering the journey of overcoming a history of prejudice and separateness. “Unless they’re told, they do not know.”
Mrs. Whittington passed away on Oct. 14, 2022, at the age of 91. We are forever grateful for the positive, lasting impact she had on the Delmarva community.
