COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
2019 Homecoming Gala Gold Sponsor Profile The Stovall Foundation: The Legacy of Dr. Leonard Stovall
Dr. Leonard Stovall was a pioneer in the field of medicine. He fought against sheer odds by virtue of the barriers of being an African American who refused to accept the pathway that life in early 20th century America offered him; and the preconceived assumptions about his ability as a black man to achieve success in one of the world’ s most challenging professional fields.
Leonard Stovall was born in 1887 in Atlanta, GA. Seeking a better quality of life, his father moved the family to Los Angeles in 1899. Turn-of-the-century Los Angeles was a big old raucous country town; a land of opportunity, even for African-American migrants escaping the inevitable hard scrabble harshness of so-called southern exposure.
He became the first African American to graduate from Hollywood High School in 1906. By 1912, he had attended the University of Southern California for two years, and then graduated from the University of California School of Medicine.
After serving as a first Lieutenant in the US Medical Reserve Corps, 365th Infantry in France during World War I, Dr. Stovall returned home to find his adopted city ravaged by tuberculosis. He joined the medical staff at the Los Angeles County Tuberculosis Clinic. He subsequently became the first African American staff physician at LA County General Hospital. TB patients of the day were treated in long-term sanitariums and there were none that would treat African American patients.
In 1935, he and his Board of Directors founded the Outdoor Life and Health Association, a nonprofit organization that operated a 50-bed TB sanitarium for patients of all races. The campaign arrested some 500 cases of tuberculosis. By 1954, the incidence of TB in LA County had largely been eradicated.
The Association subsequently changed its mission to providing services for the aged. The City of Hope and Broadway Federal Savings and Loan provided technical and financial support. Famed Architect Paul Williams designed the first two buildings located in East Los Angeles, named Fairmount Terrace I & II. Three weeks prior to the opening, Dr. Leonard Stovall passed away on February 18, 1956, at 68 years of age. The organization’ s name was changed to the Stovall Foundation.
The Stovall Foundation and the Stovall Housing Corporation today offer over 300 low-income senior and disabled persons beautiful, supportive independent living opportunities. Looking in retrospect, in light of today’ s homeless epidemic and the general disarray of many peoples’ lives, the achievement of affordable housing for people in need strongly resonates. The forward-thinking efforts of the Foundation could not have been accomplished without Dr. Leonard Stovall’ s original insight, innovation, integrity, energy and strategy to beat the odds.
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