"This Great Hospital Fight " - Dr. Drake At the height of racial and political tensions in early twentieth-century Houston, two unlikely figures became allies. Dr. William M. Drake, a pioneering surgeon and Black community leader, and Joseph Cullinan, a White oil magnate and founder of the company that became Texaco, united in a desperate effort to save a hospital that symbolized hope. The Houston Negro Hospital was born from America's Black Hospital Movement. Dedicated Juneteenth 1926, it embodied a bold experiment to bring dignity and healthcare access to a community systematically denied both in the Jim Crow south. Journalist and storyteller Carlton Houston--whose ancestors played a role in this remarkable heritage--reveals the untold, human drama behind the institution that would become Riverside General.

Recount the vision, conflict, and resilience that shaped a century of healthcare through the struggle of those determined to save lives.