Dr. Philip Carruthers Brooks Sr. built Hopkinsville’s only hospital for African Americans during segregation and treated Black and white patients for more than 30 years at the facility on South Virginia Street.
Brooks, a Hopkinsville native and graduate of Attucks High School, earned his medical degree at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
When Brooks Memorial Hospital opened in 1944, it was the only medical facility that treated Black patients in the region. Jennie Stuart Hospital was segregated, and the closest other hospital for Black residents was more than an hour’s drive from Hopkinsville, according to “The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia,” published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2015.
The hospital “drew patients from throughout Kentucky and surrounding states, and even from as far away as Chicago,” the encyclopedia’s entry for Brooks Memorial states.
Many people living in Hopkinsville today were born at Brooks Memorial.
In 1958, Brooks gained national attention for treating a white patient who had been denied care at Jennie Stuart. A brief item in the Sept. 18, 1958, issue of Jet magazine included this account:
“A white stock car racer lay injured for an hour while trying to get treatment from white doctors in Hopkinsville, Ky., but a Negro physician responded within 10 minutes, according to complaints filed with the Kentucky Medical Assn. Seven witnesses said that Dr. P.C. Brooks treated Clinton Reynolds, 27, for nose and lip cuts, two cracked ribs and multiple lacerations at Brooks Memorial Hospital after at least seven white doctors refused to come to the racer’s aid at white Jennie Stuart Hospital.”
In 1975, the National Medical Association named Brooks the General Practitioner of the Year.
A year later, the Brooks Memorial closed. At that time, Jennie Stuart had started treating Black patients. Around the same time, Brooks joined the medical staff at Jennie Stuart.
Brooks Memorial, a two-story stone building, remains standing on South Virginia Street between Second and Third streets. A portion of the building is a private residence that is occupied.
Brooks was married to Ethel Cowan Brooks, a native of Washington, D.C. She died in 1976, and he died in 1982. They are entombed at Green Hill Memorial Gardens.
Hopkinsville City Councilman Phillip Brooks, who is the late physician’s grandson, said his family still owns the hospital property.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
