The creation of the King/Drew Medical Complex and the politics of public memory

Abstract

In the aftermath of the1965 Watts Uprising, Martin Luther King Jr., General Hospital and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Willowbrook, California were created to address the medical concerns of the impoverished black community of South Los Angeles. This dissertation describes the creation process of the medical complex which was defined by empowerment, engagement, and ideological contest. It utilizes the memories of participants to tell the larger story of the hospital's creation multi-dimensionally, while simultaneously conveying the personal understandings of identity affected by the process. In studying the individuals and the endeavor, this dissertation speaks to the structural aspects of racism, power, and politics in 1960s America and beyond.