Dr. Blanchard P. Hollins
Dr. Blanchard Hollins, c. 1953. (Courtesy of Meharry Medical College)
Dr. Blanchard Hollins is a native Houstonian. He attended Houston’s Jack Yates High School. The second “colored” high school in the city, it was named in honor of the Reverend Jack Yates who founded the Bethel and Antioch Churches around which the Fourth Ward community organized and grew.
Dr. Hollins received a B.S. from Wiley College, the first historically black college established west of the Mississippi River in 1873 and located in Marshall, Texas. Hollins attended Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, graduating in 1953. He completed his internship and a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1958, he returned to Houston with his wife and daughters; he never considered practicing medicine anywhere else.
In 1958, Houston hospitals remained segregated and African-American physicians were denied privileges at all hospitals except the Houston Negro Hospital and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. In Houston, Dr. Hollins joined a close-knit community of doctors who poured their time and energy into the African-American community. He formed quick but lasting friendships with Dr. Walter Minor, Dr. Anthony Beal, Dr. William Parker, Dr. G. P. A. Forde, Dr. Hugh Lyman, Dr. H. E. Lee, and others.
Dr. Hollins was among the ten founders of Lockwood Hospital and served there as chief of the OB/Gyne service. The hospital subsequently closed.
In 1967, he headed the OB/Gyn portion of the National Medical Association’s annual meeting in Houston. President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke at the meeting about Medicare. According to Dr. Hollins, the NMA saw “great value” in the program and became the first professional organization to endorse Medicare. Dr. Hollins also volunteered in clinics sponsored under the Model Cities program. Part of President Johnson’s Great Society, this federal project tried to bring better medical care to underserved communities.
Dr. Hollins has been a member of the Houston Medical Forum (HMF) since his return to Houston, and served as president. from 1965 to 1967. Hollins also holds a membership in the Harris County Medical Society, a society closed to African Americans before 1955.
After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Medicare Act of 1965, Houston’s other hospitals soon integrated, and Dr. Hollins joined the staffs at Jefferson Davis Hospital and Ben Taub Hospital.
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