History

The Early Years

     
Freedmen's Hospital was founded in 1862 in Washington, D.C.  It was the first hospital of its kind to aid in the medical treatment of former slaves.  Later it became the major hospital for the African American community in Washington, D.C.  The hospital was founded on the grounds of Camp Barker at 13th and R Street in Northwest Washington D.C.  It remained in that location until a new building was completed in 1909 at Bryant and 6th Street. Through much of its history the hospital was managed by the U.S. government.    In 1868, six years after its founding, Freedmen's Hospital became a teaching hospital for Howard University Medical School. Freedmen's Hospital often provided vital treatment to impoverished District of Columbia residents. Freedmen's Asylum, which was connected administratively to the hospital, provided care for the aged and disabled black patients.  Most importantly, Freedmen's Hospital was also the location where the history of blacks entering into a the career field of dietetics began.

The American Dietetic Association was founded in 1917, and sources reported Freedmen's Hospital Dietary Department was being developed.  Written history has not recorded exactly who supervised Freedmen's Hospital food service for the 250 mental, medical and tuberculosis patients when the hospital was built.  Bed ridden patients meals were provided on large wooden trays from the kitchen which was located in a separate building. Ambulatory patients and personnel staff ate in the same dining room together.

Sources:

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/medtour/howard.html;https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/aframsurgeons/pioneers.html#freedmen

Bracey , John H. Jr., and Sharon Harley. "Records of the Freedman's Hospital 1872-1910." LexisNexis. LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions, 2004. Web. 15 Mar 2011. http://www.lexisnexis.com/documents/academic/upa_cis/100435_freedmenshospital.pdf.

Howard University

Early in the 20th Century, U.S. Congress authorized the construction of a new hospital, which was completed in 1909. In 1967 Freedmen's Hospital  was taken over by Howard University and operated until 1975. A new university hospital opened in 1975 at 2041 Georgia Avenue. The former building now houses the Howard University College of Nursing and College of Allied Health Sciences. Today, the Department of Nutritional Sciences is a part of the Division of Allied Health Sciences which is located in the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences.

Today, Howard University Department of Nutritional Sciences offers the Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and Doctoral Degrees in Nutritional Sciences. The Bachelor of Science degree is offered with emphasis in Dietetics, Community Nutrition and/or Pre-medicine/Pre-dentistry. The Department of Nutritional Sciences is a part of the Division of Allied Health Sciences which is located in the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences.

In 1917, Dr. William A. Warfield, in his report to the Secretary of Interior, requested a dietitian to ensure scientific preparation of food for the sick. Appropriations for a dietitian was received in 1924, and Mrs. Frances Carpenter McShann was chosen to fill the position.  She reported on duty July 23, 1924 and was the first black professional dietitian at Freedmen's Hospital. It was then, Mrs. McShann began to organize a dietary department. Mrs. Georgetta White McClain, another black dietitian, was employed in January, 1925 and the department began to progress.

Mrs. McShann saw the need for training of student dietitians and established a three months course late in 1925, from which Mrs. Ella Payne Moran was the first graduate in 1926.  Length of the dietetic student course was approved by The American Dietetic Association in 1933, under the leadership of Mrs. Georgetta B. White McClain, BS; Mrs. Delma Thompson Allen BS; and Mrs. Curtis L Horne Franklin.

The history of Freedmen's Hospital Dietary Service list only five black dietitians who became members of the American Dietetic Association prior to 1933. Ella Payne Moran 1926, Delma F. Thompson Allen 1929, Lucille McMillan Maddox, Evenell Renfrow Terrell 1931 and Virginia Hull 1932.

Mrs. Frances Carpenter McShann, dietitian at Tuskegee Institute was appointed to be the American Red Cross dietitian following an examination taken at the headquarters in Washington D.C. She was the first colored woman to receive official registration for this work. The appointment authorized her to teach nutrition and food selection to Red Cross units. The Red Cross also granted her a certificate for this work. Mrs. McShann was a graduate of Howard University and formerly served as a dietitian at Freedmen's Hospital.

Mrs. McShann assumed the teaching of nutrition and the supervision of student nurses (called pupil nurses) in the diet kitchen for practical experience.  Soon afterwards, a kitchen was outfitted for weekly instruction in cooking and serving food to the sick. Pupil nurses received lectures on water foods such as barley water, broths, coffee, tea, carbohydrates, proteins and fats as a basis for their practical work, which at that time, was under the supervision of nurses.  This practice was maintained under the supervision of a dietitian while student nurses spent up to six weeks in the diet kitchen working with special diets. Nursing students were also taught courses in normal nutrition and diet diseases.

Ella Payne Moran, 86, a retired coordinator of the practical nursing program at Margaret Murray Washington Vocational High School  received a number of honors for her work. She died of respiratory failure March 17, 1985 at Howard University Hospital.

Mrs. Moran was born in Washington and lived in the city at the time of her death. She graduated from Dunbar High School and Howard University and received a certificate as a dietitian at the old Freedmen's Hospital. In 1945, she received a master's degree from New York University. In 1926, she took a job as a dietitian at a hospital in Kansas City, Mo. She later taught in North Carolina and West Virginia.

Evenel's master's thesis  indicates at some point before 1935, that Evenel was living in Tallahassee where presumably collected the data for her thesis.  ("The adequacy and cost of dormitory diets in the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for colored students").

By 1939, Evenel  won an appointment at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute where the 1939-40 catalog lists her as Head, Department of Foods and Nutrition. In addition to citing her degrees from the University of Iowa, the catalog also reported that she received a "Graduate Dietitian's Diploma" from the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D. C. To judge from a much later article about Evenel, at Freedmen's she was part of a special student dietitian's training course founded by Frances McShann in the 1920s. Consequently, by the time she arrived at Tuskegee, she had completed some of the best training available in dietetics and nutrition studies.

It is no surprise, that at Tuskegee, Evenel had the best resume of anyone in the Home Economics/Dietetics School. Only Susie Elliott, who was then the school's director, and Henry Partridge, an instructor in Commercial Dietetics, had a Master's degrees like Renfrow. The rest had either a bachelor's degrees or diplomas from specialized schools. Evenel's education prepared her to exercise leadership which launched her to winning a General Education Board Fellowship to study at the University of Chicago for the 1941-42 academic year.

After Tuskegee and her Chicago fellowship, her name disappears from the records for some time. She next appears in 1945 in the catalog of Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, another HBCU. In September of 1945,  The Lincoln Clarion University newspaper noted that "Miss Evenel Renfrow, Assistant Professor of Foods and Nutrition," would be joining the faculty. In addition to listing her degrees from Iowa, and her service at Freedmen's Hospital, Tuskegee Institute, and Florida A & M, the newspaper also credited her with stays at Savannah State,  "Michigan State College, University of Chicago, and the Loop Center YWCA, Chicago."

Solona Victoria Cummings McDonald

Solona Victoria Cummings McDonald was born in Decatur, Illinois in 1916, and graduated from Tuskegee University in 1940 with a Bachelors Degree in Commercial Dietetics. Early in her career she worked as a civilian dietitian at Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina and Camp Livingston, Louisiana. In 1942 she was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the US Army.

From 1945-1954 she served as a dietitian for the Veterans Administration in Oteen, North Carolina. It was during this time that she completed her Masters Degree in Institution Management at Columbia. Mrs. McDonalds tenure at Tuskegee moved her towards public health and its importance to dietetics and the pressing needs of the Maternal and Child Health community in Macon County where Tuskegee is located. She completed a Diploma in Public Health Nutrition from Columbia University in 1964. 

Solona McDonald contributions and service to the dietetics profession are best demonstrated by projects such as the "Dietary Responsibilities Program" convened from 1954 through 1982. This program began as a 2-day workshop for food service workers and food service directors in nursing homes in Alabama and Georgia. In later years, it was expanded under a federal grant to a 5-day workshop. The implementation and evaluation of the workshop involved the dietetic interns; therefore, it became a major part of the internship curriculum. Under her leadership, the Tuskegee Dietetic Internship excelled. During her tenure at Tuskegee, Mrs. McDonald taught therapeutic nutrition courses to students in Home Economics, Dietetics and Nursing. She also held the rank of Associate Professor and served on a variety of committees at the University and in the community. Upon her retirement in 1982, she remained active with the University, her community, and church. She passed away January 21, 1995.

We honor Solona McDonald today with an Annual Memorial Scholarship awarded by the Academy for Nutrition and Dietetics. She was a trailblazer and mentor to many African American Dietitians.

Tuskegee University (formerly known as Tuskegee Institute)

In 1976 the Tuskegee Institute Internship was superseded by the Coordinated Undergraduate program in General Dietetics. From the 1930s to present many minority dietitians have had the opportunity to fill limited spaces in majority internships, received membership based on graduate education. 

Currently, Tuskegee University Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences has been listed as one of the top 50 nutrition degree programs in the United States. Public Health Online recently scored programs throughout the nation and Tuskegee is the only historically black institution on the list, which includes Ivy League and large public universities. Tuskegee was ranked No. 34.