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Central State Lunatic Asylum for Colored Insane

May Day festival, circa mid-1950s; patients listen to a musical performance.

King’s Treasure

April 6, 2014 by Jessica Sinn

Digital Archive Holds Untold History of African American Mental Health Resplendent in his trademark sport coat and bow tie, Louis Armstrong plays a trumpet for a large gathering of patients underneath a grove of trees outside of Central State Hospital, the world’s first African American psychiatric hospital in Petersburg, Va. This is one of the […]

the institution, people lounging on yard

Digital Archive Holds Untold History of African American Mental Health

January 30, 2014 by Jessica Sinn

Resplendent in his trademark sport coat and bow tie, Louis Armstrong plays a trumpet for a large gathering of patients underneath a grove of trees outside of Central State Hospital, the world’s first African American psychiatric hospital in Petersburg, Virginia. This is one of the many priceless images stored away in the hospital’s filing cabinets […]

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