Black Archives director Doretha Williams featured speaker…
The Wheatley-Provident Hospital, as it stands today, is the only remaining hospital building in Kansas City that was established and run by and for the African-American community from 1902-1972. Learn about this iconic building and one of the most important relics of Kansas City “apartheid” at Kansas City Museum’s February Community Curator presentation Tuesday, February 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Union Station.
Presenter Dr. Doretha K. Williams, director of the Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City, will explore the founding of this legendary hospital. Originally a Catholic school, the hospital, located at 1826 Forest Ave, was established by Dr. J. Edward Perry and was run as a hospital and training school for nurses until 1972.
The presentation is free and open to the public. RSVP online at kansascitymuseum.org
About the presenter:
Dr. Doretha K. Williams received her doctorate in American Studies from the University of Kansas. Her dissertation, “Kansas Grows the Best Wheat and the Best Race Women: Black Women’s Club Movement in Kansas 1900-1930,” was funded in part by a Woodrow Wilson Dissertation grant, the Social Science Research Council fellowship and the Dean Rosen Dissertation Completion grant.
Williams most recently served as project manager for the Project on the History of Black Writing (HBW), where she coordinated federally funded grants, implemented public programs and organized HBW’s literary collections. As project manager, Williams coordinated the Langston Hughes National Poetry Project (LHNPP), an educational grant funded in part by National Endowment for the Humanities.
Williams also assisted in implementing other NEH-funded grants, including the “Making the Wright Connection: Reading Native Son, Black Boy and Uncle Tom’s Children,” and “Language Matters II: Reading Toni Morrison.” Both programs sought to educate high school teachers and college professors on how to present the works of Wright and Morrison to their students.
As a graduate student Williams taught courses in the Humanities and Western Civilization program the University of Kansas. In addition she served as a speaker’s bureau member for the Kansas Humanities Council and the State Library of Kansas Center for the Book program. Through a partnership between the Black Archives and the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Central Missouri, Williams will also serves as an adjunct instructor in Africana and Women’s Studies.
A native of Topeka, Williams is the daughter of Lee and Ozella Williams. Williams is a graduate of Fisk University and a member of the Kansas City, Kansas chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
