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Black History Month Event: ‘Central Lunatic Asylum for Colored Insane’ Film Screening and Discussion
Petersburg’s next Black History Month Event will take place on Thursday, Feb. 15 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Virginia Commonwealth University (Commons Theater, University Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave) and will be open to the general public. Join VCU’s Humanities Research Center, in collaboration with the Office of Health Equity, for a film screening and discussion of the documentary “Central Lunatic Asylum for Colored Insane,” with filmmaker and VCU Professor of Psychology Shawn Utsey, Ph.D.
In 1869, the Central State Lunatic Asylum for the Colored Insane opened opened in Petersburg, becoming the first psychiatric facility in the U.S. to exclusively treat African American patients. This documentary film illuminates the history of the hospital, as well as the history of mental health treatment for African Americans with a focus on the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and Emancipation.