By the mid-1930s, Bergen County officials were confronting a troubling reality: tuberculosis and other communicable diseases were disproportionately affecting Black residents, particularly in overcrowded and substandard housing. Out of this concern emerged the Negro Health Committee of Bergen County, a specialized body operating under the umbrella of the Bergen County Tuberculosis and Health Association, headquartered at 398 Main Street in Hackensack. What began as a targeted response to tuberculosis soon evolved into one of the county’s earliest coordinated efforts to address racial health disparities through both medical intervention and social reform.
The committee appears to have taken shape around 1936, at a moment when public health leaders nationwide were beginning to link disease rates to broader economic and environmental conditions. Clergy, physicians, reformers, and public officials came together to form a committee dedicated specifically to what they called “Negro health.” The Rev. William K. Russell served as one of its early chairmen, and women reform leaders such as Mrs. B. N. Beaumont of Ridgewood and Miss Caroline B. Chapin of Englewood played prominent roles. The committee worked in close partnership with the Bergen County Medical Society, Bergen Pines Hospital, the Red Cross, visiting nurses, ministers, and local boards of health.
In its earliest phase, the committee focused heavily on tuberculosis detection. It organized free chest X-ray clinics and Wassermann blood tests in towns with significant Black populations. Portable X-ray equipment from Bergen Pines was used to reach residents who might otherwise have had limited access to hospital facilities. Christmas Seal funds helped pay for the diagnostic plates. Clinics were held in Englewood, Hackensack, Ridgewood, and Westwood, and hundreds of residents were screened. In one reported year, more than 500 individuals were X-rayed, with only a small number of active tuberculosis cases detected—evidence, the committee believed, that early detection and outreach could make a difference.
Yet the committee quickly recognized that testing alone would not solve the problem. Reports emphasized that health education efforts were often “nullified” because participants were unable to implement what they learned due to economic constraints and poor living conditions. In response, the committee broadened its mission. It organized dozens of public lectures on general health, conducted home nursing courses, and arranged hundreds of home visits. Thousands of pieces of educational literature were distributed. Graduates of Red Cross home nursing classes were encouraged to serve as neighborhood leaders, creating a local network of health advocates within Black communities.
By the early 1940s, the committee had explicitly linked housing conditions to disease. Poor housing and overcrowding were described as the most significant factors affecting the health of Black residents. Reports cited studies from other cities showing dramatically higher tuberculosis and pneumonia rates in slum districts. In Bergen County, similar patterns were observed in crowded neighborhoods. The committee began studying social and economic conditions alongside medical data, effectively transforming itself into a health advisory body concerned with what we would now call the social determinants of health.
The geographic focus of the committee centered on Englewood, Hackensack, Ridgewood, and Westwood—towns identified as having sizable Black populations and pressing public health needs. Englewood in particular became a focal point for clinics, health education meetings, and cooperation with the Urban League, Memorial House, and local ministers. Countywide representation on the committee ensured that additional communities—Garfield, Lodi, Rutherford, and others—were connected through subcommittees and medical personnel.
Although framed in the language of its time, the Negro Health Committee functioned as an early health equity initiative. It operated within the existing county public health infrastructure but directed focused attention to racial disparities in disease rates, housing, and access to care. Its members recognized that tuberculosis could not be separated from economic inequality, overcrowding, and structural barriers facing Black residents. In doing so, they laid groundwork for a broader understanding of public health that extended beyond clinics and into housing policy and community reform.
Within the history of Bergen County—and particularly within Englewood’s civic development—the committee represents a significant but often overlooked chapter. It was a moment when local officials, reformers, clergy, and medical professionals attempted to confront racialized health disparities through coordinated action. In the midst of Depression-era hardship and wartime mobilization, the Negro Health Committee of Bergen County stands as an example of early, county-level recognition that health was inseparable from housing, economics, and community conditions.