On the evening of Saturday, March 27th, 1916 Rosa Plunkett stood on her porch at 313 East Foster Street awaiting a cab. She was about to give birth, and she knew where she had to go. Weeks before, her husband Hugh had signed a contract for her to be received and cared for at the New England Sanitarium. It was a long ride across Melrose to the hospital (image 2), which is now the site of a housing development at 5 Woodland Road in Stoneham.
When she arrived, she spent over two hours in agony in the waiting room. Finally, Dr. Ora Cress approached her, only to inform her that she would not be received, because her presence might inconvenience the white women in the maternity ward. By that time of night, no cabs were available, and she had to spend several hours longer in the waiting room before being transported to Boston the next morning to a hospital that would receive Black women. Her son Charles was born in Boston the next day.
Melrose was soon in an uproar. The next Saturday a rally in support of the Plunketts was held in the newly-built Memorial Hall (image 3). Mayor Charles H. Adams presided, and speeches were heard from the Plunketts’ attorney, Butler R. Wilson of the NAACP, as well as local clergy. A resolution was adopted condemning racial discrimination. The sanitarium apologized, and the Plunketts successfully sued them, alleging that Rosa had suffered extreme physical and psychological trauma.
The Plunketts had moved into Melrose from Malden just a few months before. Hugh, an immigrant from Jamaica, had recently founded the U. S. Tropical Fruit Company (image 4), manufacturers of a banana milk product that Hugh had recently patented (image 5). Moving to an East Side street just off the Common was confirmation of the family’s success.
Following the incident at the Sanitarium, they moved right back to Malden. Baby Charles, born under such duress, died in upstate New York in 1987, leaving behind several children and grandchildren.
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