Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Fall/105/Section059/Doctor Solucious Lycurgus Russell

Background and Education
Doctor Solucious Lycurgus Russell, commonly referred to as “Dr. Neville,” born circa 1859, graduated Baltimore with a degree in medicine. He was a white male who practiced primarily in rural Yadkinville, North Carolina. He claimed that his trade, and the travel that complemented it, was not an easy task. During his time practicing medicine, cars were developed but many could not acquire one. Like many, Dr. Neville owned a horse and buggy and this was his method of travel to his patients. With the advancement in technology also came much progress and recognition in the social issues at the time in the United States. This coined the time period name as the “Progressive Era.”

Career and Experiences
Throughout his life he encountered many different patients of various socioeconomic status. In 1939, he was no longer practicing medicine, but he shared three different accounts of his experiences. He explained his encounters with patients as stories. He began with a story about a black woman whose residence was dirty, dark, low-ceilinged, and covered with spider webs. Before he delivered her baby, Dr. Neville noticed that it was an abdominal pregnancy, instead of a womb pregnancy and he knew that the baby could not be born naturally. At the time, advancements in obstetrics had just begun. When he birthed the baby, the doctor discovered it was still-born, but the woman was able to recover. Also, in this era, tuberculosis had taken the life of many people and there was not a cure for it. Unfortunately, the woman died a year later from tuberculosis.

In his next account, he described a man who rejected medicine or its ability to cure. The man believed that only God could cure a man. To a doctor, this is an unfortunate declaration to witness a patient saying, because they practice their trade for a reason. The man refused to take the medicine that Dr. Neville offered him, so the doctor mixed it in with his milk. The man was healed instantaneously. Dr. Neville claims that the man still thought that it was the “will of God” that cured him.

In Dr. Neville’s final story, he explained that a man whose wife had seven children, always called him at the last minute to have the doctor help deliver the child. By the time Dr. Neville arrived, the child was already born, the only thing left to do was wash the baby and organize the scene. He only charged the man half price, to which the doctor assumed that the man used this system with all seven children, in order to save money. Though the state of the living spaces of the “old coger,” who believed in spiritual healing, and the couple with the seven children was not stated, the black woman with the abdominal pregnancy supposedly lived in a disheveled space. This aligns correctly with the social issues at the time, and the extreme racism and segregation that existed, at the time, in the United States, and especially the south.

The Progressive Era
From the mid-1800s until the early 1900s, the United State experienced many changes. From the Civil War ending slavery, to segregation and the beginning of social justice reformations, as well as World War I, and the economic hardship that followed, the nation was at many odds.

Being a person of color in this time period, one was not simply viewed as a person, but lesser than human. It was a difficult time to try to instill the values of racial equality into Americans who had always viewed people of color as their personal property. It took many generations for the ideal that ‘all men are created equal’ to be prevalent. When the phrase, ‘separate but equal’ spread across the country, it was even more difficult to ensure the safety and equal treatment of people of color. Though equality across races was recognized by law, it did not stop institutions nor individuals from treating others with prejudice. An exceptionally dangerous place for racial bias to exist was in healthcare. “During the early 1900s, doctors faced with the challenge of serving either in the best interests of patients or of collective society often sided with the latter." At the time, nearly all physicians were white because adequate education was not available to people of color, let alone medical school. Blacks who did obtain a degree in medicine, however, often were viewed, even by fellow African Americans, as inferior to their white counterparts, who believed the black doctors’ training was not sufficient. “Besides the southern doctors’ training in race-based medicine, the prevalent racist sentiments of the 20th century added kindling to the fire of patient and subject mistreatment."

The Economy Post-Civil War
Despite the ongoing racial injustices, the Progressive Era did focus on bringing about a stronger nation with better regulations, due to industrialization, and a more cohesive society. Except, the economy was still not a fair game for everyone. “Eugenics was based on a racial and class hierarchy that placed white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants at the top. Lower classes, ethnic minorities, recent immigrants, the mentally ill, and the developmentally disabled all occupied lower rungs on this hierarchy." “It is hard to disagree with Rover Gallman’s generalization that “there were forces at work in the American economy during the 19th century that tended to produce greater inequality in the distribution of wealth over time." One of these forces that struck all Americans was World War I and its aftermath. “After the end of World War I, many Americans were left with a feeling of distrust toward foreigners and radicals, whom they held responsible for the war.” Soon, many of these social and economic improvements made during the Progressive Era diminished due to the Great Depression, one of the United States’ darkest economic times.