Alonzo Clifton McClennan

Alonzo Clifton McClennan
Born	May 1, 1855 Columbia, South Carolina
Died	April 12, 1912 Charleston, South Carolina
Occupation	Physician
Known for	Co-founder of the Charleston Hospital and Training School for Nurses

Alonzo Clifton McClennan (May 1, 1855 - April 14, 1912) was the co-founder of Charleston Hospital and Training School for Nurses, which opened in 1897.^[1][2] He was also the second black man appointed to United States Naval Academy as a midshipman.^[3]

Early life

McClennan was born in Columbia, South Carolina on 1 May 1855 and was raised by his uncle (Edward B. Thompson, a free black barber) after being orphaned.^[4][5] He began his education at the Benedict Institute in Columbia, and later became a legislative page in the South Carolina state legislature with the help of his uncle, Samuel B. Thompson, a representative.^[5] He was appointed to the United States Naval Academy in 1873, but resigned. In 1880 he graduated with honors from the Howard University College of Medicine with degrees in medicine and pharmacy, and established a practice in Augusta, Georgia.^[6] In 1884 he moved to Charleston, South Carolina.

Naval Academy

McClennan met Richard H. Cain when Cain was a South Carolina State Senator and they became friends.^[5] After Cain was elected as United States Representative for South Carolina's at-large district he resolved to make appointments to the service academies and held a competitive examination in the summer of 1873.^[7] While McClennan had long hoped to become a physician, his family's inability to afford college made an appointment a promising stepping-stone. After intense preparation, McClennan placed second in the examination and accepted an appointment to the United States Naval Academy.

McClennan was aware of the mistreatment experienced by the first black midshipman, James H. Conyers, but experienced no overt racism during the Academy entrance examination.^[7] McClennan's appearance—he had blond hair and blue eyes and "was to all appearances a white man"—meant his race was not immediately apparent.^[8]

The year after McClennan's resignation, Henry E. Baker was appointed and also faced hazing. Baker was dismissed from the Academy in Fall 1875 for using "opprobrious language" during a mess hall fight; the harassment continued after his reinstatement by Secretary of the Navy George M. Robeson, however, and Baker resigned permanently.^[3] No other blacks were appointed to the Naval Academy for the following six decades.^[9]

Medical career

South Carolina Historical Marker commemorating the Cannon Street Hospital. The hospital was founded by Dr. Alonzo C. McClennan and others to serve the black population of Charleston, S.C., and opened in 1897. Dedicated on 28 February 2011.

Upon his arrival in Charleston, McClennan established his practice and gained an "excellent reputation as a physician".^[10] In 1892 he opened Charleston's first black drug store, the People's Pharmacy, which was a success.^[10] In 1896 McClennan and all but one of Charleston's black physicians lobbied for a hospital to serve Charleston's black population and provide them with otherwise unobtainable hospital privileges.^[11] Led by Dr. Lucy Hughes Brown, the training of black nurses began that year with theoretical lectures held in the auditorium of Wallingford Academy; attempts to hold practical training at the City Hospital and Old Folks Home were rebuffed.^[12]

The Hospital and Training School for Nurses was chartered by South Carolina in July 1897, and opened with 24 beds in a three-story building purchased for $4,500 (equivalent to $127,998 in present day terms).^[2] Funds for the purchase of the building and necessary equipment were secured almost entirely by local charity, including support from the Duke Endowment.^[12] A historical marker commemorating McClennan and the hospital was erected in 2010 near 135 Cannon Street in Charleston, South Carolina.^[13]

Personal life

Grave marker of Dr. Alonzo McClennan in the Humane & Friendly Society Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

McClennan married Ida Veronica Ridley, a schoolteacher from a prominent African American family in Augusta, Georgia, and their home was a locus of social life for black elites in Charleston, frequently hosting recitals, literary gatherings, and other social functions.^[8] The couple had three children: Maude (1885‒1976), Harriet (b. 1890), and Ridley Ulysses (1887–1921).^[14]

Dr. McClennan died in Charleston on 14 April 1912 and is buried in the Humane and Friendly Society Cemetery in Charleston.^[15]

References

Notes

1. Meffert, John; Pyatt, Sherman E. (1 August 2000). Charleston South Carolina. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-0-7385-0583-1. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
2. Hoffius, Susan Dick; Fox, Elizabeth Brooke (25 April 2011). Medical University of South Carolina. Arcadia Publishing. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-7385-7996-2. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
3. Gelfand, H. Michael (2006). Sea change at Annapolis: the United States Naval Academy, 1949-2000. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 50–51. ISBN 978-0-8078-7747-0. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
4. "McClennan Banks: Hospital and Training School for Nurses: Dr. Alonzo McClennan". Waring Historical Library, Medical University of South Carolina. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
5. Schneller 2005, p. 28.
6. Schneller 2005, p. 34.
7. Schneller 2005, p. 29.
8. Gatewood, Willard B. (2000). Aristocrats of color: the Black elite, 1880-1920. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. pp. 81–82. ISBN 978-1-61075-025-7. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
9. Lanning, Michael Lee (2004). The African-American soldier from Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell (EPUB). New York: Citadel Press/Kensington. loc. 75. ISBN 978-0-8065-3659-0. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
10. Gatewood 2000, p. 26.
11. Savitt, Todd L. (1999). "Entering a White Profession: Black physicians in the New South, 1880‒1920". In Darlene Clark Hine and Earnestine Jenkins (eds.). A question of manhood: a reader in U.S. Black men's history and masculinity. Blacks in the diaspora 2. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 224. ISBN 0253336392. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
12. Downing, L. C. (January 1941). "Early Negro Hospitals". Journal of the National Medical Association 33 (1): 13–18. ISSN 0027-9684. PMC 2624512. PMID 20892990. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
13. Stroud, Mike. "Cannon Street Hospital / McClennan Banks Memorial Hospital Marker". The Historical Marker Database. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
14. Harter, Christopher (2010). "McClennan, Alonzo Clifton" (Biographical Note). Amistad Research Center. Retrieved 2013-05-28.
15. Saratoga (2010-12-30). "Dr Alonzo C. McClennan (1855 - 1912)". Find A Grave. Retrieved 2014-07-16.

Bibliography

• Gatewood, Willard B. (1988). "Alonzo Clifton McClennan: Black Midshipman from South Carolina, 1873-1874". The South Carolina Historical Magazine 89 (1): 24–39. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
• Savitt, Todd L. (2003). "Walking the Color Line: Alonzo Mcclennan, the" Hospital Herald", and Segregated Medicine in Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century Charleston, South Carolina". The South Carolina Historical Magazine 104 (4): 228–257. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
• Schneller, Robert John (2005). Breaking the color barrier: the U.S. Naval Academy's first Black midshipmen and the struggle for racial equality. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-4013-2. Retrieved 27 May 2013.