Mertis O'Steen-Washingotn
1892-1977
Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, including hospitals, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages. In the southern states white nurses could not tend to a black patient in hospitals.
In the small town where I was born, Mertis O’Steen-Washington was the Midwife that assisted thousands of African Americans families in delivering their children for over forty years. She worked to ensure that women received high-quality and dignified care before, during and after childbirth, and experience safe, healthy deliveries.
Aunt Mertis was born in Meadville, Franklin County Mississippi on May 25, 1892. Mertis was the daughter of Benjamin O’Steen and Rosalie Stewart-O’Steen. She was married to Edgar Washington my great-great uncle and died in Winnsboro Franklin Parish Louisiana in 1977.
Aunt Mertis delivered all ten of my parents children. The first one of my parent’s children that Aunt Mertis delivered was my oldest sister Ruthie Lynn Coleman born in 1949 and last was my youngest brother Michael Glenn Coleman born in 1962; I am sure she faced many challenges, in the end, she delivered fine healthy children and would often remain in the home with the family for days after the children were born. Had she been born at a different era or time, I am sure she would have gone to college and become a Pediatrician or a Gynecologist.
I would like say thank you Aunt Mertis O’Steen – Washington for assisting in bringing myself, my siblings and thousands of others into the world. You provided a service that was much needed during the Jim Crow Era.
