Spreading the Gospel of Health: Tuskegee Institute and National Negro Health Week

Abstract

In the early twentieth century the health reform efforts of black club women became part of a national black health movement. In 1915 Booker T. Wash- ington, the most powerful black leader of his time, launched a health educa- tion campaign known as National Negro Health Week from Tuskegee In- stitute in Alabama. Washington, as founder and head of the school, had long emphasized sanitation and hygiene in his educational work. However, that year he set in motion a health campaign that would grow into a nation- wide black health movement over the next thirty-five years. For black lead- ers and community organizers, National Negro Health Week campaigns provided a way to advance the race through the promotion of black health education and cooperation across racial lines.