Historic Midland

June 1941. Following the war’s end, airport
improvements helped Midland win major commercial
airline service. The first major airline
into Midland in the late 1940s was Continental
Airlines. By 1948, Midland was served by
Continental, Pioneer, and American Airlines.
Trans-Texas Airlines would follow and, now, the
all-jet Southwest Airlines.
“It was great days, great doings,” Collyns said
of Midland’s progress. “Things fell in place.
Midland was ‘air-minded’ at the time.”
Today, Midland International Airport is served
by pure-jet and turboprop airliners and is a refueling
base and training site for military pilots.
Yet, Midland Army Air Base was but one of a
legion of Army Air Forces’ training bases in West
Texas.
Success of the
Black Community
By Dr. Viola M. Coleman
I came to Midland in 1951 after graduation
from Meharry Medical College in Nashville,
Tennessee, in 1949, and an internship at Coney
Island Hospital in New York
I came to Midland because a friend of mine
told me that Midland was looking for a physician,
and they had been promised if they ever
got a minority doctor this doctor would have
privileges at the hospital.
At that time my husband was teaching in the
public schools in Louisiana. After coming to
Midland, my husband and I decided we would
go to California because in California we would
not have problems getting hospital privileges.
When this friend in Fort Worth told us about
Midland, since Midland was on the way to
California, he suggested, “Why don’t we stop and
look it over?” So we decided we would do this.
We came to Midland and went to the hospital
and were assured that we would have privileges
as soon as my license was registered. Then
we went to Midland National Bank—now
NorWest—and just on our signature we were
given a $300 loan.
We accepted the loan of the $300, bought
exam tables, et cetera, and set up an office in our
home at 400 South Carver.
I did not have a car and did my rounds
through taxi for a couple of weeks until I found
an automobile company that made a loan of $600
for a car. Midland seemed like the place to be.
There were doctors here, and they would see
minorities, but, because segregation was the law
of the land, they had separate waiting rooms,
usually located at the back of the facility or simply
a row of chairs in the hall.
I built my practice quickly, though now that
I think about it, it may not have been entirely
due to my medical expertise, but perhaps
because they were tired of waiting in back
rooms and in halls to see a doctor. I had one
waiting area and my patients sat wherever there
was a vacant spot.
I was given privileges at Midland Memorial
Hospital, and I was the second Black doctor to
come to Midland. Dr. W.D.B. Cooper had come
several months ahead of me. He also was a family
practitioner. Midland Memorial Hospital was
different from most hospitals at the time. The
Blacks and the Hispanics were told when this
hospital was built that they would be treated
fairly, and that meant then that there would be
no basement in which to place all the Black and
Hispanic patients.
At that time, even if the hospital accepted
minority patients, they either put them in the
basement or in a little wooden structure out in
the yard, regardless of the problem. Midland
Memorial had two rooms on the second floor
and these were whole rooms—reserved for the
Black and Hispanic patients. They had four beds
in the two rooms, separated by curtains. The
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Aerial view depicting Midland Police
Department and City Hall in the
foreground, First Baptist Church
(domed building on left) and two
water towers.
Discovery of Oil Made Midland | 55