(Black History Month Special)
For decades, Holy Family Hospital stood in Ensley as far more than a medical facility. For Birmingham’s Black residents—particularly during segregation—it was a place of dignity, access, and compassion at a time when those things were routinely denied elsewhere.
“It was really the only hospital for Black people,” recalled Circuit Court Judge Tamara Harris Johnson, whose family history is deeply tied to the hospital. “When my family moved back to Birmingham (in 1961 from St. Louis, Missouri), it was the hospital.”
Founded through the collective efforts of Black physicians, Catholic nuns, and community supporters, Holy Family Hospital emerged to meet a critical need. Among those involved in its early financing and leadership was Harris Johnson’s grandfather, Samuel Francis Harris, M.D., who, according to a family-held newspaper article, helped fund the hospital, served as its first president, and delivered the hospital’s first baby…