‘Dixie Three’ Honored for Fighting Segregation at Virginia Hospital

• Three nurses, known as the Dixie Three, were recently honored for their efforts to confront segregation in the 1960s at a Virginia hospital. 
• Their 1963 protest consisted of sitting in the “whites-only” cafeteria of Dixie Hospital, after which they were fired and sued the hospital. 
• The women join others throughout history who have taken steps to call out and eradicate racism and inequity in the nursing profession. 

Three nurses who fought against segregation during the Jim Crow era finally received their flowers. 

Patricia Taylor McKenzie, Agnes Stokes Chisman, and Mildred Smith — known as the “Dixie Three” — were honored last month with a historical marker at the site of their former employer, Dixie Hospital, in Hampton, Virginia.  

“A lot of people, when they think about historical markers, they assume they commemorate a president or a Civil Rights site or something like that, something big or something famous,” Mayor Jimmy Gray said at a ceremony covered by The Virginia Pilot. “But not all history is written in bold strokes. Often, history is made quietly, gradually and by ordinary men and women whose names remain unknown, except for those in their hometowns, and that’s why we’re here today.” 

Who Are the ‘Dixie Three?’

McKenzie, Chisman, and Smith protested segregation at Dixie Hospital in 1963 “by sitting in the whites-only cafeteria,” after which they were fired and sued the hospital. 

Court documents state that “Negro nurses were permitted to pass through the main cafeteria line but were required to eat their meals in a separate room situated down the hall from the main cafeteria.” One day after being reprimanded for eating in the main cafeteria, they did so again.  

“They were then discharged and, for the purpose of this proceeding, the sole reason for said discharge was the failure of the plaintiffs to adhere to the regulations of the hospital and the orders of the assistant administrator,” the court documents stated. 

The cafeteria segregation policy ended “shortly after firing the three women but [the hospital] still refused to rehire them,” according to the Virginia Pilot.

An initial lawsuit in 1964 was dismissed, but the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals took up their case and ruled in their favor in 1966. The women were reinstated and received full back pay. 

Robert Smith, Mildred Smith’s son, said at the ceremony that the women were courageous. 

“They put their faith in God and decided to face head on the giants of racism and bigotry and a system that was designed for them to fail,” Robert Smith said. “But what was meant to eliminate them, God used to elevate them.” 

A documentary on the women, “The Dixie 3: A Story on Civil Rights in Nursing,” is also in production. 

The Bigger Picture

The Dixie Three are just a few among the many who took steps to advance civil rights in the nursing industry. National Nurses United (NNU) stated in a 2023 blog post that the nursing profession has not always been welcoming and “remains, in many ways, a profession mired in the same roots of white supremacy as this country.” 

In 1908, Martha Minerva Franklin founded National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, which was “dedicated to promoting the standards and welfare of Black nurses and breaking down racial discrimination in the profession” at a time when the American Nurses Association didn’t allow Black nurses into its ranks, according to the African American Registry. 

Decades later, organizations like the Council of Black Nurses and Bay Area Black Nurses were the catalyst for what would become The National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) in 1971. 

Now, the National Black Nurses Day on Capitol Hill annually attracts more than 500 nurses and nursing students to Washington, D.C., every February and young nurses can participate in the NBNA Collaborative Mentorship Program, which was established in 2016. 

The Bottom Line

The Dixie Three — Patricia Taylor McKenzie, Agnes Stokes Chisman, and Mildred Smith — were recognized earlier this year for their efforts to confront segregation at a Virginia hospital. Their protest is among the many steps Black nurses have taken to ensure equal rights and opportunities across the nursing industry. 

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