100th Anniversary of the Tuskegee VA Medical Center

Benita Miller, thank you for that kind introduction. Amir Farooqi, my sincere thanks to you and your team for all that you do to care for Veterans. A special shout-out to Sheila Austin and Erica Moore, the Chairs of the Tuskegee Centennial Working Group. Today’s event would not have been possible without their hard work behind-the-scenes. It’s a tremendous honor to join so many extraordinary Veterans, VA teammates, and community leaders to celebrate the history and enduring legacy of the Tuskegee VA Hospital.

Let me specifically thank: Mayor Tony Haygood; Councilwoman Norma Jackson; retired Rear Admiral Kent Davis, Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs; Patricia Ross, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Veterans Services; Louis Maxwell, Macon County Commission Chairman; Karin Hopkins, Executive Board Member on the Tuskegee Chamber of Commerce; Michael Coleman, Executive Director of the Heart of Alabama Food Bank; civil rights leader Fred Gray; and so many other state and community leaders gathered here to celebrate this important anniversary—thank you all for being here. And to the Veterans in the audience today, thank you for your selfless service to our country.

This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the Tuskegee VA Hospital. Today, we commemorate the legacy of this historic hospital campus, and the Veterans, health care professionals, and staff who serve it. We gather here to honor the courage of ordinary Americans who were called to do extraordinary things, who had both the faith to see and the will to fight for a better and more equal America, who defended the rights and freedom of their countrymen even when our country did not assure them the same in return, and who devoted themselves to the promise of serving all Veterans.

We gather here to celebrate them.

A century ago, these hallowed grounds where we now stand were a key battleground in the fight for civil rights. But as is true across the story of our Nation, we cannot examine this anniversary in isolation. This hospital represents the culmination of generations of Black servicemembers who have been putting their lives on the line and protecting our way of life since before our nation was founded—during times of war and periods of restless peace between. And the service of Black Veterans from the great state of Alabama is such an important chapter in that history.

From the Revolutionary War, fought by thousands of Black soldiers in the Continental Army.

Soldiers like Jim Capers, a freed slave from Alabama, who saw action and suffered severe injuries in some of the bloodiest battles in our War for Independence. But whose wife, Milley, was unable to collect a widower’s pension because she, and their six children, remained enslaved at the time of his death.

To the Civil War, when 190,000 Black soldiers and sailors tipped the balance in favor of Union victory. Like the Black soldiers who made up the 51^st Colored Infantry. After winning the Battle of Fort Blakely—the last major battle of the Civil War—their regiment traveled by boat from Mobile to Montgomery. Enslaved people lined the riverbanks, cheering the sight of the Black soldiers who were delivering them freedom.

From World War I, where more than 380,000 Black Americans fought in segregated units to save Europe from the fevers of nationalism and imperialism. Black soldiers like 1^st Lieutenant Cleveland Abbott, whose father was born a slave in Alabama, and who saw action at the Meuse-Argonne Offensive—the largest and deadliest campaign of the war. At the urging of W.E.B. DuBois, Lieutenant Abbott returned home after the war to coach football at Tuskegee University—eventually becoming one of the winningest coaches in college football history and mentoring countless generations of young Black men along the way.

To World War II, where over one million Black servicemembers joined famed units like the Tuskegee Airmen, the Montfort Point Marines, the Buffalo Soldiers, and the brave women of the Six Triple Eight Battalion. One of those Black servicemembers was Petty Officer First Class Julius Ellsberry. He died aboard the USS Oklahoma, counted among the first American casualties during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was hailed by Black newspapers as the Crispus Attucks of his time. The local Black community filled the pews at his memorial service held at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. And his picture went up in Black homes and store fronts across Alabama with messages urging young Black Americans to join the Double V campaign—to fight for freedom at home and abroad.

From Korea and Vietnam, where hundreds of thousands of Black Americans were drafted into a newly desegregated military. Like General Chappie James, an alumnus of Tuskegee University, who fought in both wars. He would go on to become the first Black four-star general in any branch of the armed forces.

And finally, to the Global War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan. Fought by young Americans like Captain Kayla Freeman, a Tuskegee University grad with over 250 combat flight hours in Operation Enduring Freedom, and the first Black woman to serve as a pilot in the 200-year history of the Alabama National Guard. She follows in the footsteps of her heroes and fellow Tuskegee alumni: Mildred Carter, the first Black woman pilot in Alabama; and Colonel Nickey Knighton, the first woman to command a tactical combat arms battalion.

These heroes joined millions of other courageous Black Vets taking risks, overcoming adversity, and fighting battles, in and out of uniform, for equality, for opportunity, for inclusion, for a better and brighter future for all Americans, and for a stronger America. We can never underestimate, or over appreciate, the costs they bore for us. In the face of an unfair system, unimaginable discrimination, and an unjust society—they catalyzed meaningful change that helped edge us closer to that more perfect union. What enormous faith these men and women had. Faith in their God, faith in each other, and faith in America. They served, sacrificed, and endured untold hardships across our nation and around the world so that we can freely gather here today.

Now, we know that wars seldom end on the battlefield. For too long, too many Americans have fought too hard to protect our rights and freedoms in battles around the globe but were greeted here at home not with recognition of their own civil rights but instead with a brutal wave of discrimination and hostility, even violence. They were too often denied the benefits and disability pay they earned and could not depend on access to the quality health care they deserved. 100 years ago, we took one small step to correct these injustices by opening Veterans Hospital Number 91 right here in Tuskegee, Alabama. This hospital was built to care for over 350,000 Black Veterans returning to the segregated South at the end of World War I, the first and only hospital of its kind in VA history.

Shortly after opening, VA announced that the hospital would be led by the Department’s first Black director, Dr. Joseph Ward. Prior to coming to Tuskegee, Dr. Ward had a distinguished career. He was a Veteran himself, having served in the 92^nd Division’s Medical Corps, one of only two Black soldiers to achieve the rank of Major in World War I. Following the war, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. And he opened a private medical practice and founded a medical school in Indiana—one of the only schools in the country educating and training Black women in nursing.

The Tuskegee Campus was the first VA facility in the nation to be administered by an all-Black medical staff, and they immediately faced serious threats. In fact, 50,000 Klan members marched down the streets of Tuskegee, burned a 40-foot cross, and planned to kill a Black leader and blow up the Tuskegee Institute—a plan which was fortunately thwarted. Still, Dr. Ward and his team bravely led the Tuskegee hospital and continued to blaze new trails. Undeterred by the hatred of others and guided by their desire to provide the highest standards of care for Black Veterans, the hospital was widely praised as a top-notch medical facility and quickly became one of the largest providers in the VA health care system. And over the next decade, half of all Black Vets who received hospital care were treated here at Tuskegee.

All of this came to a sudden halt twelve years into Dr. Ward’s tenure. He was investigated on charges that included mismanagement of government resources, which some modern historians believe had no tangible evidence and were potentially promoted by a handful of disgruntled members of the Tuskegee community. As a result, he was removed with prejudice from his position, returning to private practice in Indianapolis. Dr. Ward lived just long enough to see the end of racial segregation in VA hospitals, a cause he had long championed, before passing away in 1956.

I am moved by the leadership of Dr. Ward and his staff, even in the face of tremendous resistance and discrimination. Without their service, without their contributions, and without their sacrifice—there would have been no progress. They shaped our Nation, inspiring and charting a path for generations of Veterans and health care professionals to follow.

If it were not for Dr. Ward, this hospital would very likely not be here today. But here we stand.

We cannot re-write history. We cannot undo the harm that was done to Dr. Ward, or his brave staff, or the millions of Black Americans who have served our country in uniform—who have fought for equal rights for all Americans—for all of us who gather here today. But we can, and we must, do what we know to be right in this moment. As scripture teaches, “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous.” So earlier this year, I directed that VA leadership reach out to the keepers of Government records at the National Archives to ensure that Dr. Ward’s files accurately reflect his groundbreaking contributions to Veterans.

Today, we bend that arc of the moral universe a little further toward justice through two small but significant actions. First, VA partnered with the Heart of Alabama Food Bank last month to open the Dr. Joseph Henry Ward Veterans Food Pantry. This partnership is the first of its kind in the state of Alabama. Please, send any Vets or servicemembers who face food insecurity or hunger to this new food pantry.

And second, I am privileged to posthumously recognize Dr. Ward with the Secretary’s Exceptional Service Award. This recognition is both well-deserved and long overdue. I invite everyone to come view this award at the conclusion of today’s event, displayed here on the stage with me. Following the event, the award will be placed in the Oscar Cortez Gadsen, Jr. Museum on the Tuskegee VA Campus, forever reminding visitors of Dr. Ward’s trailblazing record of service.

At VA, we’re honored to follow in the legacy of Dr. Ward. Serving all Veterans as well as they served all of us. Because Vets, all Vets, each and every Vet, deserve our very best, and we will never give them anything less.

So let me leave you with this. As we look to the next 100 years at VA, we must double our commitment to win the fight for equality, for human dignity, and for civil rights. I challenge all of us to look to our left, right, front, and back and think about who might be getting unjust, unfair, or inequitable treatment today. We must work together to right these wrongs, and to ensure we’re combating institutional racism and discrimination, rather than perpetuating it. Because the United States of America, the strongest and most diverse country on the face of the planet, is strongest when it draws on the talents of all our people, each made in the image of their Creator and therefore endowed with certain unalienable rights.

The bottom line is this: we will not rest until every Veteran gets access to the world-class care and benefits they so richly deserve. We’re going to keep and honor this country’s fundamental promises to Black Vets—and to all Vets. We are going to continue earning Veterans’ trust, day by day. And we’re going to do that by being transparent and by delivering the very best outcomes. So, to any Vets who may have felt unseen by VA in the past or who didn’t feel like they belong: you are welcome, today and every day, at your VA.

Thanks again for having me. Thank you all for joining me in our noble mission, and for helping keep our promise and commitment to all of our country’s Veterans.

May God continue to bless the memory and legacy of Dr. Ward, and of this historic Tuskegee Hospital. And may God continue to bless all of you, and the Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors we serve.