Until 1890, black doctors had no place to admit their patients. That all changed when an African-American surgeon named Daniel Hale Williams helped organize Provident Hospital on Chicago’s south side. The hospital, which was incorporated on Jan. 23, 1891, was founded to provide health care for blacks, but its mission was to treat all races. In the early years, most of Provident Hospital’s patients were white. By 1915, nearly 90 percent of the patients were African-American, many of whom came to Chicago to work during World War I. Rising costs forced Provident Hospital to close in 1987, but Cook County bought the building from the federal government, invested nearly 58 million dollars and reopened the hospital in 1993.

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