Tuberculosis and the Politics of Exclusion: A History of Public Health and Migration to Los Angeles (Critical Issues in Health and Medicine)

203 Pages·2007·0.98 MB·English

by  Emily K. Abel

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Tuberculosis and the
Politics of Exclusion
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Critical Issues in Health and Medicine
Edited by Rima D. Apple, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Janet Golden,
Rutgers University, Camden
Growing criticism of the U.S. health care system is coming from consumers,
politicians, the media, activists, and health care professionals. Critical Issues in
Health and Medicine is a collection of books that explores these contemporary
dilemmas from a variety of perspectives, among them political, legal, historical,
sociological, and comparative, and with attention to crucial dimensions such as
race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and culture.
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Tuberculosis and the
Politics of Exclusion
A History of Public Health and
Migration to Los Angeles
Emily K.Abel
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Abel, Emily K.
Tuberculosis and the politics of exclusion : a history of public health and
migration to Los Angeles / Emily K. Abel.
p. ; cm. — (Critical issues in health and medicine)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8135-4175-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-8135-4176-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Tuberculosis—California—Los Angeles—History—19th century.
2. Tuberculosis—Califonia—Los Angeles—History—20th century.
3. Immigrants—Diseases—California—Los Angeles—History—19th century.
4. Immigrants—Diseases—California—Los Angeles—History—20th century.
5. Immigrants—Medical care—California—Los Angeles—History—19th century.
6. Immigrants—Medical care—California—Los Angeles—History—20th century.
7. Discrimination in medical care—California—Los Angeles—History—19th century.
8. Discrimination in medical care—California—Los Angeles—History—20th century.
9. Public health—California—Los Angeles—History—19th century.
10. Public health—California—Los Angeles—History—20th century.
11. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Ethnic relations—History—19th century.
12. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Ethnic relations—History—20th century.
I. Title. II. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Tuberculosis, Pulmonary—history—Los Angeles. 2. History, 19th Century—
Los Angeles. 3. History, 20th Century—Los Angeles. 4. Minority Groups—Los Angeles.
5. Prejudice—Los Angeles. 6. Public Health—history—Los Angeles. WF 300 A139t 2007]
RC313.C2A25 2007
616.9'9500979494—dc22 2007000028
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2007 by Emily K. Abel
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written
permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer
Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as
defined by U.S. copyright law.
Visit our Web site: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter1 Pestilence in the Promised Land 5
Chapter2 Strategies of Exclusion 29
Chapter3 Creating a Tuberculosis Program 39
Chapter4 “Outsiders” 61
Chapter5 Slashing Services in the Great Depression 77
Chapter6 Expelling Mexicans and Filipinos 86
Chapter7 “Agitation over the Migrant Issue” 108
Chapter8 Fighting TB in Black Los Angeles 125
Epilogue 137
Notes 141
Index 179
About the Author 189
v
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Illustrations
1 Hotel where Martha Shaw worked as a waitress 16
2 Margaret Love Stone at the time of her marriage 21
3 Dr. Pottenger’s Sanatorium in Monrovia, 1920 23
4 1920 Ad for Los Angeles 27
5 Barlow Sanatorium in 1915 42
6 An early cottage at the Sanatorium of the Jewish
Consumptive Relief Association 44
7 Boys sunbathing at the Preventorium of Los Angeles, 1928 52
8 Mexican families departing from Union Station,
Los Angeles, 1932 96
9 African American nurses at Los Angeles
County Hospital in 1940 130
10 Dr. Leonard Stovall in his later years 132
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Acknowledgments
Many people read all or part of the manuscript, including Rick Abel, Karen
Brodkin, Janet Brodie, Amy Fairchild, Sharla Fett, Janet Golden, Rachel Lee,
Natalia Molina, Doreen Valentine, Devra Weber, and Alice Wexler. Douglas
Flamming directed me to relevant documents. Sabah Uddin and Ellie Hickerson
provided research assistance. Archivists who rendered essential help included
Robert G. Marshall of the Urban Archives Center, California State University,
Northridge; Katharine E. S. Donahue, Teresa G. Johnson, and Russell A. Johnson,
all of the History Division, UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library; Dace
Taube, Regional History Curator, Specialized Libraries and Archival Collections,
University of Southern California; and Bill Frank, Curator of Hispanic,
Cartographic, and Western Historical Manuscripts at the Huntington Library.
I received permissions from the Huntington Library, San Marino, California,
to quote from the Charles Willard Collection and the John Anson Ford Collection;
from the Specialized Libraries and Archival Collections, Doheny Memorial
Library, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, to quote from the Records
of the Chamber of Commerce and from the oral history interview with Zdenka
Buben; from the Center for Oral and Public History, California State University,
Fullerton, to quote from oral history interviews; from the Department of Special
Collections, Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles, to
quote from the George Pigeon Clements Collection and the Los Angeles Urban
League Papers; from Sheila Rhoads, to quote from the interview with David
Lubin; from the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas, to quote from
the Martha Shaw Farnsworth Collection; from the Urban Archives Center, Oviatt
Library, Northridge, California, to quote from the Jewish Family Service Society
of Los Angeles Collection and the Greater Los Angeles Visitors and Convention
Bureau Collection; from the Breathe California of Los Angeles County to quote
from the Report of the Directors, Los Angeles Tuberculosis and Health
Association; and from Cathryn Griffith, to quote from the diary of Margaret Love
Stone.
The book was supported by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
and by grant number 5G13LM007969 from the National Library of Medicine.
The contents are solely my responsibility and do not necessarily represent the
official views of the Chicano Studies Research Center or the National Library
of Medicine. Portions of chapters 3 and 6 appeared in “From Exclusion to
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