Polio and prejudice: Charles Hudson Bynum and the racial politics of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, 1938–1954

In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his law partner Basil O'Connor formed the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (March of Dimes) to battle the viral disease poliomyelitis (polio). Although the Foundation program was purported to be available for all Americans irrespective of "race, creed, or color," officials encountered numerous difficulties upholding this pledge in a nation divided by racial segregation. In 1944, the Foundation hired educator Charles H. Bynum to head a new department of "Negro Activities," becoming the first health philanthropy in the United States to employ an African American to an executive position. Between 1944 and 1954, Bynum negotiated the Foundation bureaucracy to educate officials and influence their national health policy. As part of the Foundation team, he eventually increased interracial fundraising, improved polio treatment for black Americans, and helped to further the civil rights movement.