Event

Medical Racism and Political Death: The Case of Juliette Derricotte

On November 6, 1931, Juliette Derricotte was killed in a car accident just outside of Dalton, Georgia. Although the thirty-four-old social reformer survived the initial collision, she later succumbed to her injuries because the local hospital did not treat African Americans. An outpouring of anger and sadness followed, but hers was not an isolated incident. Several organizations used her tragic example to draw attention to the frequent denial of emergency medical care to injured and sick Black people during the Jim Crow Era. This paper reconstructs the events surrounding the accident and the political mobilization that occurred in its wake.

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