Stanton, Tenn. is located in West Tennessee. Historically, Stanton was a slave-based cotton economy. The population remains today predominantly African American descendants of enslaved peoples.
In the late 1970s, Stanton community leaders contacted the Center for Health Services (CHS) at Vanderbilt seeking support for a community health evaluation in support of their ambition to build a local clinic.
Barbara Clinton, formerly CHS director, reconnected with local leader Jean Carney in Stanton, Tenn. in October 2017. In the video clip below, Jean recounts the origin story of the Stanton Community Clinic, still standing today.
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Jean Carney
Jean was a community leader in the 1960s and 1970s in and around Brownsville, Rossville, and Stanton in West Tennessee. With help from the health fairs conducted by Student Health Coalition (SHC), including students from Meharry and Vanderbilt, Jean helped… Continued
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Pushback against Douglas Community Health Center
Jean Carney shares how rhetoric against the Black-run Douglas Community Health Center manifested as several false accusations and presented various legal challenges to both the clinic and associated nurse practitioners. Full footage of Jean Carney at the old Douglas… Continued
Jean Carney on the motivation to build the Stanton, Tenn. health clinic
Jean Carney discusses how segregation created healthcare disparities in her community and provides a historical account of the health clinic in Stanton, Tenn. Recorded October of 2017. Continued
Grant proposal process for the Douglas Community Health Center
Jean Carney details the convoluted grant proposal and approval process for establishing the Douglas Community Health Center, and the lengths to which she and others had to go to make it happen. Despite the several setbacks, she persisted and the… Continued
Origins of the Douglas Community Health Center’s Board of Directors
Jean Carney recounts the story of how the Board of Directors for the Douglas Community Health Center in Stanton, Tenn. first came to be, as well as the role Irwin Venick‘s feasibility study played in determining the community’s need for… Continued
Sharon Roberson’s early involvement with the Center for Health Services
Sharon Roberson tells of her first getting involved with the Center for Health Services, a Vanderbilt-sponsored affiliate program of the Student Health Coalition. She worked in West Tennessee (primarily Haywood County) and explains that unique to this region, in comparison… Continued
Behind the scenes at Douglas Community Health Center
Jean Carney reminisces the early days of Douglas Community Health Center in Stanton, Tenn. Following a brief overview of the clinic’s architectural layout and functional operations, she delves into the impact of race relations on healthcare at the time. … Continued
Inadequacies of healthcare system in Stanton, Tenn.
Jean Carney discusses the several, primarily race-related inadequacies of the healthcare system in Stanton, Tenn. prior to the 1977 establishment of the Douglas Community Health Center. Full footage of Jean Carney’s tour and narrative of the Douglas Community Health… Continued