"George Cleveland Hall" (February 22,1864-June 17 1930)

Was born in Ypsilanti,Michigan, the son of John Ward Hall, a Baptist minister,and Romelia Buck

Hall.The family moved to Chicago in  1869,where George attended public elementary and high schools.He graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1886,with honors and first in his class.He then entered Chicago's Bennett Medical College where he attended classes only of each day, allowing time to work to support himself.George graduated in 1888,first in a class of 54.After attending evening classes,he also completed studies at Harvey Medical College, receiving a dipoma in 1896.George opened a medical practice in Chicago immediately after receiving his medical degree.During this period he came to know Daniel Hale Williams,the eminent surgeon who founded Provident Hospital in Chicago in 1891 and in 1893 peformed the world's first successful heart operation.George initially idolized Daniel as a surgeon and a gentlemen,in time a lifelong feud developed between them that affected their work at Provident and spilled over to their activities in the National Medical Association.George sought a position on Provident's staff,Daniel would not hire him.Daniel considered George inept became he had graduated from an unaccredited medical school, which Daniel considered inferior.George had in fact completed one of the nation's most rigorous courses of study at Chicago Medical College.African American,possibly continuing the practice seen in slavery where " a protective tribal instinct operated." George suspected that he wa "too dark for Dr. Daniel Hale Williams' taste.George, had a number of influential friends who appealed to the hospital's governing board and to George on George behalf. George was also known and respected in Chicago's ghetto.Some sources claim that Daniel weakened and allowed him to join the staff of the Pediatrics Department.George was "to look after measles and chicken pox" and was required to bring in a consutant for even the simplest cases.This infuriated George,who wanted another position.Other sources report George gained access to Provident only in Daniel's absence.From 1893 to 1897, Daniel relocated to Washington,D.C.where he was on staff of Freemen's Hospital.A hunting accident in 1893 nearly cost Daniel his life and delayed his departure for Freedmen's.George seized the occasion to attack Daniel.George still felt he had been treated unfairly and neither wanted Daniel to stay at Provident nor to receive world-wide recognition for his appointment at Freedmen's.As Daniel lay critically ill,George wrote to the African-American public through the Washington,newspaper,the Colored American,claiming that "Freedmen's new chief will never assume his post there."He exhorted others to take up the attack,including the Chicago Defender's founder and editor Robert Sengstacke Abbott,whose mind was "as dark and twisted as George's and for the same tragic reasons." His diploma from Harvey Medical College is said to have helped to remove a stumbling block to his entry into the Provudent Hospital Staff.Some sources also call George crafty and devious.As he advanced professionally,he was said to have done so by the art of igratiation,winning over white lay members of Provident's board of trustees.From 1894 until his death,he served the hospital in a variety of capacities.By 1898 he was an assistant in gynecology and by 1907,a surgeon.He did "uncomplicated surgery on hernia [sic]." He also became chief of staff.George became a member of the hospital's Board of Trustees in 1900,and remained on it until he died.He presented himself to the public as the medical rival of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams,yet many African-American knew better.During Daniel's absence George occupied a preeminent position at Provident and in the Chicago community.Angered over George's position of leadership,George sought on his return to embarrass him before patients in the hospital,the Board of Trustees,and the National Medical Association.Daniel petitioned the hospital to remove George from the staff and the board, and threatened to quit the hospital and remove all of his patients unless his conditions were met. Reportedly,Daniel called the left-handed surgeon a butcher.So vehement was Daniel in his criticism of the hospital and the board that,when he threatened to resign in 1910,the board accepted his offer.He removed 80 percent of the patients from the hospital he had founded 21 years earlier,the hospital survived.The vendetta was not one-sided.George,who never forgave Daniel for rejecting his appointment early on,missed no opportunity to put obstacles in Daniel's way,and openly harassed him. He questioned Daniel's commitment to the race.Although he was a leading figure at Provident,George never directed the hospital.It was not until 1926 that the Board of Trustees named him chief of staff. He also headed the Medial Advisory Board which was responsible for the staff and medical practices,and worked with the board set policies and determine programs.During this period white physicians dominated membership on the attending staff. As chair of the committee,George controlled all medical and other staff appointments,and anyone seeking an appointment had to meet his approval.In a Century of Black Surgeons, historians of Provident Hospital called George "a man who ruled with a big stick and picked his people on a personal basic."Not only had he developed a strong reputation in Chicago,he had become widely respected throughout the country as a surgeon, diagnostician, and therapist. He performed procedures his way, whether or not the procedures conformed to newer techniques of younger surgeons, yet he was successful with some difficult operative procedures.While physicians throughout the country saw him as a complete surgeon,some of his Chicago colleagues did not..George's supporter, Robert Abbott, used his newspaper to plug George's work by noting his attendance at a doctor's meeting in Richmond.Robert also described George success as a physician and saw to it that a photograph and biographical sketch were published in 35 newspapers.Many patients traveled long distance to Chicago to have him perform surgical procedures,he practiced at a time when surgeons traveled to clinics throughout the country performing operations and teaching their techniques to others. George visited state medical meetings in Missouri and in the South,particularly in Alabama,Tennessee,Kentucky,Virginia,and Georgia,and conducted surgical clinics for the members and local physicians.For example,when the Nashville Medical Association met in 1902,he was invited to attend;George held a clinic unlike anything the physicians had seen before.George stimulated the development of African-Americans surgeons as well as small hospitals and clinics in the South.In 1906 he conducted the first surgical clinic attempted at Tuskegee University Hospital.Booker T.Washington invited him to Tuskegee to lecture.Twice a year until 1907 he travelled South to operate with his understudy,Dr.Steers,and he welcomed the white physicians who were present for each session. He helped start infirmaries in such cities as Clarksville and Memphis,Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama.He was quoted in the Colored American Magazine as saying,"My object is to encourage young Negroes along surgical lines wherever there is opportunity for successful operation of an infirmary.Whereever there are three or four Negro Doctors I want to make them co-operate."Published accounts of George's importance give conflicting views on the extent of his success and popularity.He also set up clinics in Georgia and South Carolina,but none of them lasted a year. At a demonstration in Birmingham, a country doctor took over George's operation to save a patients life.As early as 1900 Daniel had written and lectured about the need to establish hospitals and training schools for African-Americans in the South,it was not until 1917,and under George leadership,that Provident Hospital began to work toward such instruction.The next year George directed its first postgraduate course.George civic and humanitarian interests outweighed his contributions to medicine and overshadowed his professional achievements. All of his work, whether professional or civic, was designed to enhance the welfare of African-American people,and he was most active in the enhancement of race relations in the city.  In 1897,he organized the Civic League of Chicago and worked through the organization improve housing conditions for African-Americans in that city.He was a member of the Governor's Commission on Race Relations,which investigated the 1919 Chicago Riots.He was responsible for bringing the National Urban League to Chicago,served briefly as its vice-president,and in 1913 participated in a meeting between the league and trade union leaders.George also founded the Cook County Physicians'Association of Chicago.He was a member of the NAACP and an organizer and chairman of the Board of managers of the first YMCA in Chicago.George was on of the founders of the  Association for the Study of Negro Life and History,now the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History,now the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History.His contact with Julius Rosenwald enable him to persuade Julius to support African-American businesses,newspapers,and institutions and worked on behalf of such enterprises through the Chicago branch of the National Negro Business League.First a member of the NNBL, in 1912 he became its president.He was on board to the National Medical Association.George was a member of the Executive Committee of the Municipal Voters.A republican,he also dabbled in politics, running for the Chicago Board of Commissions in 1914 on the Progressive slate.As board member of the Chicago Public library,he persuaded Julius Rosenwald to erect cultural centers for residents near the Rosenwald-funded apartment complex for middle class African-Americans built at Forty-Seventh and Michigan avenues on Chicago's South Side.Having prevailed upon Julius to donate the land,he then influenced the library board to build a branch library there.George died before it was completed,the building was named in his honor.George also belonged to the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and the Presbyterian church.He delivered the principal address at Tuskegee University,when a monument for his friend,Booker T.Washington's was unveiled.Early on,George aligned himself with Booker's view on self-help and racial solidarity,but considered his accommodations methods inappropriate in the North.George actively solicited and contributed funds to Lincoln University and was an active fundraiser for Fisk University,Tuskegee and Hampton Universities, and Meharry Medical College,garnering support from African-Americans and white contributors.His ready access to Julius and other people of wealth led to substantial growth and development of many African-Americans enterprises,including the Greater Provident Hospital,established in 1933,whose development he spearheaded.On June 7,1894 George married Theodosia Brewer,a woman from Council Bluffs Iowa, and graduate  of the Council Bluff's Seminary for Women.She became a fundraiser for the New Provident Hospital.They had two children,one whom died in early infancy.The other,Hortense,was born in 1908,and survived both parents.The Halls lived in a palatial home atv3638 South Parkway.Chicago's African-American society,never for got the deplorable George-Daniel controversy involving two of its leading citizens,and had difficulty in planning social events which George and Daniel factions were to attend.The Halls and the Washingtons at Tuskegee were friends and visted each other on occasion.