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H. 4137

STATUS INFORMATION

Concurrent Resolution
Sponsors: Reps. Gilliard, Brantley, Jefferson, Anderson, R.L. Brown, Clyburn, Hosey, Mack and Whipper
Document Path: l:\council\bills\nbd\11623ac11.docx

Introduced in the House on April 27, 2011
Currently residing in the House Committee on Invitations and Memorial Resolutions

Summary: McClennan Banks Tower Hospital named

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   4/27/2011  House   Introduced (House Journal-page 48)
   4/27/2011  House   Referred to Committee on Invitations and Memorial 
                        Resolutions (House Journal-page 48)

View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

4/27/2011

TO REQUEST THE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA TO RENAME THE ASHLEY RIVER TOWER HOSPITAL THE "MCCLENNAN BANKS TOWER HOSPITAL" IN HONOR OF DR. ALONZO CLIFTON MCCLENNAN AND ANNA DECOSTA BANKS, RN, WHO WERE INSTRUMENTAL IN ESTABLISHING AND PROVIDING NURSING TRAINING AND A DIGNIFIED, QUALITY HOSPITAL FOR TREATMENT OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN PATIENTS AND FOR PRACTICE BY AFRICAN-AMERICAN PHYSICIANS IN CHARLESTON IN THE EARLY NINETEEN HUNDREDS.

Whereas, Alonzo Clifton McClennan was born in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1855. In 1884, after graduating with honors from Howard University School of Medicine and School of Pharmacy, Dr. McClennan moved to Charleston and established the first black drug store, called the People's Pharmacy located on King Street; and

Whereas, in 1896, Dr. McClennan spearheaded the effort to open a hospital and nurses' training school for African Americans in the city of Charleston. In July, 1897, the State of South Carolina approved the charter for the Hospital and Training School for Nurses, which opened later that year at 135 Cannon Street; and

Whereas, the Cannon Street Hospital, as it was also known, provided desperately needed health care for Charleston's African-American citizens with twenty-four beds, nurses' dormitories, an operating room, dining hall, reception room, and office. No patient or physician was denied admission because of race. Dr. McClennan served as the hospital's medical director, as well as, surgeon in charge and instructor of surgical nursing until his death in 1912; and

Whereas, Anna DeCosta Banks was born on September 2, 1869, in Charleston and was educated in the Charleston Public Schools. She graduated from Virginia's Hampton Institute and received her nurses' training from Dixie Hospital School of Nursing, where she finished first in her class; and

Whereas, after serving as head nurse at Dixie Hospital for two years, Nurse Banks returned to Charleston when the Hospital Training School for Nurses was being organized. After serving there as the first head nurse, she rose to become superintendent of nurses, serving in that capacity for thirty-two years. When she died in 1930, the Ladies Benevolent Society paid Nurse Banks this tribute: "All ages, classes, races, called her blessed."; and

Whereas, the Ashley River Tower, a state of the art facility and the newest hospital on the Medical University of South Carolina campus, stands, in part, on the site that the 1959 replacement facility for Dr. McClennan's original Hospital and Training School for Nurses stood, thereby continuing in the same locale over a century of serving the health needs of all; and

Whereas, it is proper and fitting to honor Dr. Alonzo Clifton McClennan and Anna DeCosta Banks for their dedication to serving the health care needs of African Americans in Charleston by providing high quality nursing training for African-American women and a place of dignity and respect for hospital treatment for African-American patients and for African-American physicians to practice. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

That the members of the South Carolina General Assembly, by this resolution, request the Medical University of South Carolina to rename the Ashley River Tower Hospital, within the Medical University of South Carolina at 25 Courtenay Drive, the "McClennan Banks Tower Hospital" and to erect appropriate signage.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Dr. Raymond Greenberg, President, Medical University of South Carolina.

This web page was last updated on May 11, 2011 at 9:46 AM