The Fred Hampton Memorial People’s Free Health Clinic, 1970

A newspaper article from the Pioneer Log focusing on the operations of the Fred Hampton Memorial People’s Free Health Clinic, 1970. This health clinic was established by the Black Panther Party and provided free health care to the community, located at 109 N Russell. Other programs started and facilitated by the Black Panther Party in Portland included a dental clinic and the Children´s Breakfast Program.

The article reads:

Reporters scrutinize Panthers’ health clinic – Pioneer Log 3-10-70

(Last of a four-part series on the Portland Black Panthers) by Rick Goodfellow

The Fred Hampton Memorial People’s Free Clinic has a plate glass window which looks into a waiting room. The night Dave Crabtree and I arrived to visit the clinic, two middle aged white men were sitting in chairs next to a table covered with various magazines and newspapers, while a young black woman and two white college girls worked behind the reception desk.

We were expected. The young woman introduced herself as Sandra. Sandra finished the work she was doing, while I looked at the reading matter on the table. The publications included The Black Panther, a local Albina paper called The News Paper, and some copies of various national magazines, including the Life issues on revolution.

Dave shot photos while Sandra and I sat down to talk. Sandra, I learned, was the coordinator of the clinic’s affairs and the communication secretary for the Black Panther Party in Portland.

One of the gentlemen sitting next to the reading table was one of the doctors who had volunteered his time to the clinic. The other was the husband of the other doctor on duty, who, for the moment, was busy with a patient.

Sandra explained that each evening the clinic required a staff of eight people: two doctors, two nurses, two clerical aids, and two lab technicians.

She added that the clinic depended on volunteer help from a pool of approximately twenty-seven doctors, twenty–five nurses, and eighteen clerical aids.

A few minutes after Sandra and I began talking, a patient who had been receiving treatment when we had first arrived came out of the door and into the waiting room. She was a white girl who looked as if she were in the early months of pregnancy.

Dave and I went into the back part of the clinic and looked around. Soon we got in the way of two volunteers who were working there, but they smiled while we shot some photographs.

The facilities were clean and functional. The medicine storage areas could never be mistaken for a pharmacy, but the range of drugs on hand was surprisingly varied.

When we returned to the front office, I asked Sandra if the Panthers had experienced any difficulty with health officials concerning the clinic’s operation. She said they hadn’t. In fact, she said the clinic has received a great deal of help from staff members of various health agencies. Many of the lab technicians work for the county hospital, she said, and many of the nurses are employed by Public Health. She also explained that the Panthers received various drugs from the V.D. Clinic at no charge.

The clinic treats an average of ten patients each evening, and so far has saved at least one life.

I asked whether any party indoctrination came with treatment at the Fred Hampton Clinic. Sandra said no, although she said that she always answered questions concerning the Party from anyone who asks.

I asked Sandra, “what is the most common question you are asked?”

“Sandra, do you have a gun?” she said.

“Do you?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you know how to use it?”

“Yes.”