Sources: David Rose/March of Dimes Archives/Charles Bynum Papers – Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Charles H. Bynum: Charles H. Bynum, an African-American teacher and civil rights activist, was Director of Interracial Activities from 1944 to 1972. His outreach to African-Americans helped to ensure that black children and adults received proper medical care in polio epidemics. His work consisted of ensuring that African-Americans were aware of the March of Dimes mission, recruiting black professional organizations to help advance our mission, and ensuring that March of Dimes-sponsored polio care for blacks was applied equally and fairly.

Charles Bynum Official Portrait

 

Charles H. Bynum, African-Americans, and the March of Dimes

            Charles H. Bynum (1905-1996), an African-American educator and civil rights campaigner, was the Director of Interracial Activities for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (March of Dimes) for nearly three decades, from 1944 to 1971. His path-breaking work of outreach to African-Americans throughout the United States helped to ensure that black children and adults received the proper medical care in polio epidemics. Mr. Bynum was born in Kinston, North Carolina, and prior to his joining the National Foundation he was a high school biology teacher, dean of Texas College in Tyler, Texas, and assistant to the president (Frederick Patterson) of the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. Mr. Bynum was a leading advocate in the campaign for the initial capitalization of the word Negro by the white press, especially in the South.

            In his work for the March of Dimes, Charles Bynum traveled widely throughout the United States to facilitate the service program of patient care at the local level for blacks suffering from polio and to organize fund-raising efforts for rehabilitation and epidemic relief. He promoted the use of African-American poster children in March of Dimes fund raising in order to reach his constituency effectively. Consequently, black children with polio were featured in our national posters each year from 1947 to 1960. In the 1950s, Mr. Bynum conducted an annual fund-raising meeting at the Tuskegee Institute for black professionals and civic leaders. Tuskegee was a logical venue for an annual campaign as the March of Dimes had supported the institute in many ways, beginning with a unique grant for the construction of the first polio center for blacks at the children’s unit of Tuskegee’s John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital. This facility, the Tuskegee Institute Infantile Paralysis Center, admitted its first polio patient in 1941.

 

From 1946 to 1968, the March of Dimes awarded grants totaling $6.5 million to the Tuskegee Institute, many for nursing education. Basil O’Connor, president of the National Foundation, served as chairman of the Tuskegee Institute’s board of trustees from 1946 to 1968. In 1971, Tuskegee named its School of Nursing building in honor of Mr. O’Connor, and the March of Dimes established the Basil O’Connor Fund for Perinatal Nursing Education at Tuskegee. Dr. Luther H. Foster, president of Tuskegee from 1953 to 1981, has served on the March of Dimes board of trustees. From the polio era of the 1940s and 1950s to the 21^st century, the African-American community has strongly supported, and has benefited by, the work of the March of Dimes to conquer polio, birth defects, infant mortality, and premature birth, in great measure thanks to the work of Charles Bynum. A partial list of black celebrities who have supported the March of Dimes over the years includes Hank Aaron, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Willie Mays, Charles Mingus, Jackie Robinson, Hazel Scott, Carl Stokes, Sheryl Swoopes-Jackson, Sarah Vaughn, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and many others.

Charles Bynum and Basil O'Connor

Charles Bynum Papers – Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Charles Bynum insisted that his outreach would be more effective if black children participated as poster children in March of Dimes posters. He stated: “Present practice is to use one child; to give significance to the appeal in Negro schools the poster should indicate that our services include the Negro child.” … “The poster should not be considered as a special appeal to a racial group. Recognition of a special population group is necessary not because of race but because it is impossible to demonstrate the validity of our pledge and the reliability of our staff without visual evidence.”

Charles Bynum continued through this time of transition as Director of Intergroup Activities, de-emphasizing the racial aspects of his function as the civil rights movement rose to a crescendo in the 1960s. He admitted that, “if I can’t sell polio, I’ll sell the March of Dimes.” This curious expression shows that among many things, he was a specialist in strategic marketing, one of the first African-American “market specialists” in corporate history. In 1963, reflecting on his work during the polio years, he said of the March of Dimes that “the image of ONE organization validating its service pledge was unique in the experience of the Negro public.”

Charles H. Bynum Quotes 

“My work cannot be done properly without recognition of problems at local levels. This necessitates interpretation of the program and services of the National Foundation in accordance with its pledge, but at the same time giving identification to the Negro. In brief, my interpretation of the National Foundation story employs complementary techniques: identification and integration of the Negro in the program and services.”

 

“To me it is significant that after one year with the National Foundation I can report 100% observance of our pledge to give aid to all needy victims of infantile paralysis. No reason for protest [has] been noted. The press, organizations and individuals all bear witness to the fulfillment of our pledge. This is a splendid commentary on the spirit of our Chapters. No other person holding a position similar to mine can make this claim.” Memo, Bynum to BOC, October 15, 1945

“The image of ONE organization validating its service pledge was unique in the experience of the Negro public.” Memo, Bynum to George Voss, April 22, 1963

Segregation in Chapters

“Negro professional people will be excluded from the Alabama Preparedness Meeting, according to advice given to me. This specific practice aids in perpetuating poor medical care for Negroes; it emphasizes the necessity for national headquarters staff to initiate discussion of hospital facilities for Negroes; denies Negro physicians access to modern concepts and practices related to diagnosis and treatment; it results in additional suffering and crippling of Negro victims; it enforces poor reporting of cases; it provokes questions as to National Foundation policy; and it strips the Tuskegee Institute Infantile Paralysis Center of the semblance of its proper place in the fight against infantile paralysis.” Memo, Bynum to Hart van Riper, May 21, 1946

“Neither Campaign Directors nor Negro people relish facing problems inherent in the relations of white and colored Americans. Yet if we fail to face up to them at some time the problems will always remain with us, whereas, once people meet the problems, people are amazed to learn that so-called major problems are but minor issues which good will, gentility, and mutual interests quickly resolve. … Negro people resent receiving invitations to work in the March of Dimes after all planning has been done. Negro people enjoy the recognition accorded by an invitation to meet officials from National Headquarters. Negro people feel they should have representation in the Chapter. Negro workers do not want a campaign unit to be designated as a Negro division.

Arcadia Book Project: 

p. 54, #86

Charles H. Bynum, November 14, 1955. Mrs. J. A. Jackson of the Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star of Virginia presents a $2000 check to National Foundation Director of Inter-racial Activities Charles H. Bynum at a March of Dimes pre-campaign meeting in Tuskegee, Alabama. Mr. Bynum was a biology teacher and Assistant to the President at the Tuskegee Institute before joining the National Foundation in 1944 for a career that spanned three decades of outreach to the African-American community.