Mercy Hospital

Mercy Hospital and Training School was the first African American Hospital established in Detroit in 1917 by husband and wife Dr. David C. Northcross and Dr. Daisy L. Northcross - one of the first women to pass the Alabama State Medical Board.  (The Chicago Defender) Described as a hospital equipped with “private rooms, operating rooms, a laboratory, and staff of physicians and nurses,” (The Chicago Defender) Mercy was one of the first hospital’s to provide adequate care for African American patients, including soldiers during World War I, who were previously turned away from white hospitals.  The hospital also implemented a training program for nurses, which increased employment and education for Black women in the city.  Subsequently, Dr. Daisy Northcross assisted in the founding of Dunbar Hospital, one of Detroit’s well-known African American hospitals.