Holly Scott, the oldest of 15 children, was born and raised in the rural town of Eastover, South Carolina. After graduating as valedictorian of Webber High School in the early 1950s, she enrolled in the Columbia Hospital School of Nursing, which was first established in September of 1935 at the corner of Laurens and Washington Streets as the School of Nursing for Black Students. When it eventually closed in 1965, the school had graduated a total of 401 nurses in its history, including Holly Scott.
In 1960, Scott became the second African American to work at Columbia’s VA Hospital, where she faithfully served until 1992. In 2024, she was joined by her daughter, Bernardine Cobb, and her granddaughter, Christina Freeman, at StoryCorps to talk about her experiences in nursing school and the era of racial integration within South Carolina’s healthcare industry.
TRANSCRIPT:
Freeman: Well, Grandma, I want to know, why did you choose nursing school over traditional four-year college?
Scott: I wanted to help people, to take care of people, because I saw some books about it, but, I just thought I wanted to help people and I was interested in nursing.
Freeman: Will you talk about going to the Columbia--and correct the name--is it the Columbia School of Nursing?
Scott: It was Columbia Hospital School of Nursing. It was interesting. I went up there and it was a big changed for me because, number one, we didn't have a telephone. I'd seen the telephone before, but, we didn't have a telephone. That was a big change. And taking care, going to class. And after six months we went on the wards and helped take care of the patients. So, it was really interesting. I enjoyed it.
Freeman: When you first started, as a nurse at the VA and during this era, what were the differences of attending? Did you attend to white patients or were you, strictly for black patients?
Scott: We had white and black patients. Some of the wards were separated. When I first went out there, they had the blacks on one side and whites on one side. And we had a surgeon. He came in one day, he said, “I've had it. I've had it. I want my patients, all my patients together. I don't want to go from one building to the other to see patients. I want all my patients together.” And, about that time, something by the Army had integrated, and so, they put them all together. And then I worked on a ward with this nurse, and she would separate the patients. She would put the black patients in one room and the white patients in one room. When they would come in the afternoon, we just put them in the room where it was available. But the next day she would switch them around. And one patient was joking about--most of the nursing assistants did it, which was men--and they said, “Well, I know where you can get a job when you're not working, when you leave here. So, you can get a job moving people,” because they would see them moving the patients. But, it got to where they were all integrated. But some people, they didn't want to change.
Freeman: Right. I just find it fascinating. Mama always says, you say this quote, “If we made it through the '60s, we can make it through these times that we are currently experiencing.”
Scott: Mm-hm, mm-hm.
Cobb: For future generations. What advice do you have?
Scott: Be truthful to yourself. Tell the truth all the time. Because, when you tell those little ones, then you got to wonder what, well, did I say such and such a thing? But if you tell the truth, you don't have to worry about it. And whenever you can help somebody, help them. Because everybody needs somebody sometime. And don't forget the fact that Almighty God, he's the one that you can always say, “Lord, help me, guide me and protect me.” And don't worry about what other people think about you or, say about you. Do what's right all the time. Be truthful and be thankful for what you have. Don't let the material things consume you.
