TY - JOUR
T1 - "Dancing on Eggs"
T2 - Charles H. Bynum, Racial Politics, and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, 1938-1954
AU - Mawdsley, Stephen E.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his law partner Basil O’Connor formed the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) to battle the viral disease poliomyelitis. Although the NFIP program was purported to be available for all Americans irrespective of “race, creed, or color,” officials encountered numerous difficulties upholding this pledge in a nation divided by race. In 1944, NFIP officials hired educator Charles H. Bynum to head a new department of “Negro Activities.” Between 1944 and 1954, Bynum negotiated the NFIP bureaucracy to educate officials and influence their national health policy. As part of the NFIP team, he helped increase interracial fund-raising in the March of Dimes, improve polio treatment for black Americans, and further the civil rights movement.
AB - In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his law partner Basil O’Connor formed the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) to battle the viral disease poliomyelitis. Although the NFIP program was purported to be available for all Americans irrespective of “race, creed, or color,” officials encountered numerous difficulties upholding this pledge in a nation divided by race. In 1944, NFIP officials hired educator Charles H. Bynum to head a new department of “Negro Activities.” Between 1944 and 1954, Bynum negotiated the NFIP bureaucracy to educate officials and influence their national health policy. As part of the NFIP team, he helped increase interracial fund-raising in the March of Dimes, improve polio treatment for black Americans, and further the civil rights movement.
UR - https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/254495
U2 - 10.1353/bhm.0.0346
DO - 10.1353/bhm.0.0346
M3 - Article
SN - 0007-5140
VL - 84
SP - 217
EP - 247
JO - Bulletin of the History of Medicine
JF - Bulletin of the History of Medicine
IS - 2
ER -
