Afro-American Sons and Daughters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Afro-American Sons and Daughters was a fraternal organization in Mississippi and one of the leading black voluntary associations in the state. Organized in 1924, it had 35,000 members by the 1930s. The founder of the group was Thomas J. Huddleston, Sr., a prosperous black entrepreneur and advocate of Booker T. Washington's self-help philosophy.
In 1928, it opened the the Afro-American Hospital of Yazoo City, Mississippi to give low-cost care to the members. The hospital, which offered both major and minor surgery, was a leading health care supplier for blacks in Mississippi. It had a low death rate compared to other hospitals that served blacks in the South during the period.
The hospital ceased operation in 1966 as a fraternal entity after years of increasingly burdensome regulation, competitive pressure from government and third-party health care alternatives, and the migration of younger dues-paying blacks to the North. The Afro-American Sons and Daughters disbanded during the same period.
Huddleston's grandson is Mike Espy, a former member of the House of Representatives and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
[edit] References
David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, David T. Beito, "'Let Down Your Bucket Where You Are:' The Afro-American Hospital and Black Health Care in Mississippi, 1924-1966," Social Science History 30:4 (Winter 2006), 551-69.
