- unitid
-
{"value"=>"186423", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"b22234779", "type"=>"local_b"}
{"value"=>"Sc MIRS Sydenham 1990-16", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1970s-1980s", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1970/1989"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Sydenham Hospital Protest audio collection"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"11 audio_recordings", "unit"=>"audio_recordings"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Sydenham Hospital was a healthcare facility in Harlem, which operated between 1892 and 1980. The Sydenham Hospital Protest audio collection consists of eleven audio recordings pertaining to issues of healthcare and health services in Harlem and leading up to the closure of Sydenham Hospital in 1980."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Adelona, Ebun", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Sydenham Hospital was a healthcare facility in Harlem which operated between 1892 and 1980. It was the first fully desegregated hospital in the United States with six African American trustees and twenty African Americans on staff. It was New York City's first full-service hospital to hire African American doctors and nurses, serving mostly African American patients. Sydenham was located at 124th Street and Manhattan Avenue, and moved to West 125th Street and Lenox Avenue around 1924.</p> <p>In 1979, due to New York City's financial crisis, Mayor Edward I. Koch announced the planned closures of four city hospitals, including Sydenham. While the Koch Administration argued that Sydenham was outdated and wasted money, African American leaders in Harlem viewed the hospital's closing as a loss of both a historic Black institution and accessible health services to the community. At the time, Harlem was designated a medically underserved area and a \"health disaster area\" by President Jimmy Carter's Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Joseph Califano. Dr. Ebun Adelona, a Harlem resident and professional dancer, health advocate, holistic nurse practitioner, and anthropologist, was central in the fight to save Sydenham. She appears multiple times in the collection. After more than a year of lawsuits, lobbying efforts, and protests by municipal hospital unions and Harlem community activists, Sydenham Hospital was closed in late 1980 and eventually turned into a senior residence.</p> <p>Years after he was no longer mayor, during an interview with Congressman Charles Rangel and LaGuardia and Wagner Archives Director Richard Liebermanthat in 2011, Ed Koch admitted that closing Sydenham was a mistake.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Sydenham Hospital Protest audio collection consists of eleven audio recordings. They are arranged chronologically. Since the collection's original formats are audio cassettes, many of the items contain two or more parts, one for each side of the cassette. The titles are derived from the content of the recordings and labels on the original formats. When the spelling of participants' names is unclear, they appear in square brackets in the item description.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Gift of Ms. Ebun Adelona, August 1990.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>See the Photographs and Prints Division for the Sydenham Hospital Protest collection, Sc Photo Sydenham Hospital Protest Collection.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Collection inventoried by <span class=\"name\">Christopher Arena</span>. Collection processed and described by <span class=\"name\">Ornella U. Baganizi</span>, archivist; and <span class=\"name\">Shola Lynch</span>, curator. Finding aid published in <span class=\"date\">2024</span>.</p>"}
- sponsor
-
{"value"=>"An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project."}
- revisiondesc
-
{"value"=>"Item scope and content notes, and extent notes updated to facilitate public access by Ornella U. Baganizi.", "date"=>"2026-04-22"}
- date_start
-
1970
- keydate
-
1970
- date_end
-
1989
- date_inclusive_start
-
1970
- date_inclusive_end
-
1989
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Sydenham Hospital Protest audio collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library"}