Screening of the film “The Central Lunatic Asylum for the Colored Insane” at MPAAGHS Monthly Meeting

June 8, 2024

Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical and Historical Society (MPAAGHS) will hold its monthly meeting virtually on Saturday, June 8, 2024, at 11:00 AM Eastern Time. The meeting will feature a screening of the film “The Central Lunatic Asylum for the Colored Insane.” Written and directed by Dr. Shawn Utsey, the film is about what is now called Central State Hospital and explores the first psychiatric facility for African Americans and the history of scientific racism.

In 1869, the Central State Lunatic Asylum for the Colored Insane in Petersburg, Virginia opened, becoming the first psychiatric facility in the United States to exclusively treat African American patients. Many white physicians of the time were among the same ones who had invented psychiatric disorders afflicting Black patients, including drapetomania, a “disease” that caused enslaved Africans to flee captivity. The conditions at Central State when it opened were akin to warehouses, “not necessarily for health reasons but for reasons of control, of punishment,” Dr. Utsey said.

“I’m hoping that people will be inspired by the story of this hospital that began in the aftermath of slavery that had one purpose — to warehouse the newly freed African Americans who were suffering from mental illness and many who weren’t — and how it evolved over the years into a place that the community began to connect with and take pride in and that members of the community who worked there thought of as a family,” said Dr. Utsey. He is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Department of African American Studies in the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Humanities and Sciences. His research interests include understanding how race-related stress impacts the physical, psychological, and social well-being of African Americans and how trauma is manifested in the victims of racial violence.

A discussion with the audience will follow the film screening. The discussion will be led by Dr. King E. Davis, who is the founder of the Central State Hospital Digital Library & Archives Project and president of the Friends of Central State Hospital. Dr. Davis is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin and a former Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.

MPAAGHS 2024 dues of $25 are due. Payments may be made electronically via MPAAGHS's Payments webpage or by mailing checks made payable to MPAAGHS to:
MPAAGHS
4114 Tidewater Trail
Jamaica, VA 23079

If you are not on our email list and would like to receive an invitation for this virtual meeting or to get further information about MPAAGHS, call 804.758.5163.