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Clara C. Frye, born in Tampa, trained to become a nurse in Alabama, then moved back to her hometown in 1901.
“Whites only” hospitals wouldn’t accept Black patients, so she treated them in her own home for the next 15 years, using her dining room table for operations and letting the sick recover in her bedroom.
In 1923, Frye bought a building on her street and turned it into a hospital, never refusing anyone who couldn’t pay. The city bought it a few years later, and Frye reportedly died impoverished in 1936.
Today, she’s remembered as a selfless servant and great humanitarian.
– Eve Lederman, The 100 Companies