By Leah Harris
This Black History Month, we recognize Black leaders in the area of mental health, many of whom are not known to the mainstream, but whose life stories have been preserved through the work of archivists such as Vanessa Jackson, author of In Our Own Voice – African-American Stories of Oppression, Survival and Recovery in Mental Health System and Separate and Unequal: The Legacy of Racially Segregated Psychiatric Hospitals.
One of these unsung leaders is Jennie Fulgham, of Zuni, Virginia, widely considered to be the founder of the first peer respite in the United States. Jennie’s vision was shaped by her own experiences within the psychiatric system.
She was confined for 30 days in Central State Hospital in 1947 after she had a spiritual experience in church while going through a difficult divorce. While her confinement was relatively brief, it left a lasting impact on her life, including the loss of custody of her two young children. Afterwards, she said “I did not feel like there was anyplace for me to go.” Fulgham’s life experiences led her to found the Zuni Federation for Mental Health on three acres of land in 1978. It was free of charge and open to any former patients of Central State Hospital. To read more about Jennie Fulgham’s story, check out Vanessa Jackson’s work Separate and Unequal: The Legacy of Racially Segregated Psychiatric Hospitals.
Journalist Antonia Hylton, author of Madness, Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum, has also uplifted untold stories of Black Americans living in segregated psychiatric hospitals. The seed of an idea to write about Crownsville Hospital in Maryland, took root when Hylton was in college and took a class where she read Vanessa Jackson’s work about these institutions.
Speaking on Fresh Air, Hylton reflects on the impact of history: …”It’s a reminder that all of these decisions that we make about people and our neighbors, they are influenced by our history. They’re influenced by our beliefs about different groups and types of people and how deserving they are, what we’re willing to fund to support them and the ways in which we might be willing to pay for one kind of institution rather then or over another option, another kind of a social tool or support. These are decisions we make and that we’re all implicated in.”
To learn more about the stories and achievements of Black movement leaders past and present, visit the Wildflower Alliance’s dynamic and growing exhibit; this project is looking for nominations of additional leaders whose stories and contributions shape the fabric of history.
Resources for further exploration:
- Black Movement History Leaders: Past & Present – Wildflower Alliance
- What a Jim Crow-era asylum can teach us about mental health today – NPR
- Unveiling the Past: Antonia Hylton on Madness & Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum – Black Healing Remixed Podcast
- Separate and Unequal: The Legacy of Racially Segregated Psychiatric Hospitals by Vanessa Jackson
- In Our Own Voice: African-American stories of oppression, survival and recovery in mental health systems by Vanessa Jackson
Leah Harris is a non-binary, queer, neurodivergent, disabled Jewish writer, facilitator, and organizer working in the service of truth-telling, justice-doing, and liberation. They’ve had work published in the New York Times, CNN, and Pacific Standard. You can learn more about their work at their website and follow them on Instagram.