New Book Traces Healthcare Racism to Jim Crow Laws, Urges Spiritual Vigilance

A South Carolina chaplain and pastor has published a book arguing that the racial gaps in American healthcare today have their roots in the health policies of the Jim Crow era. "Deep Roots of Racism Cause Disparities in Healthcare," by Reverend Deberry P. Cook of Sumter, was announced by its publisher, Dorrance Publishing Co., on May 16, 2026.

According to the publisher, the book examines implicit and explicit bias in the healthcare system through the medical legislation of the segregation era, and argues that those policies help explain present-day disparities. Cook presents the fight against bias as a spiritual duty as well as a policy problem. Citing John 10:10 and 1 Peter 5:8, she warns readers against "deceptive tactics" and urges them to stay "vigilant and sober-minded" in pursuing justice. The book also celebrates Black culture and the legacy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and it is aimed at healthcare professionals and faith-based advocates.

Cook was born in Clarendon County, South Carolina. She is an ordained Itinerant Elder in the AME Church and an endorsed professional chaplain, previously spent a decade pastoring in the United Methodist Church, and runs an advocacy ministry called Kingdom Building Ministry.

The history the book draws on is well documented. The 1946 Hill-Burton Act funded a wave of hospital building but allowed hospitals that received the money to segregate patients if they provided "separate but equal" facilities. In 1963, in Simkins v. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, a federal appeals court ruled that provision unconstitutional after Black doctors and patients in Greensboro, North Carolina, sued two hospitals built partly with Hill-Burton funds. The Supreme Court declined to hear the hospitals' appeal.

The book is a 496-page hardback priced at $39, with an ebook at $34 (ISBN 979-8-88683-400-0). Its claims rest on historical and policy analysis rather than new medical research, and Measured Take has not reviewed a copy. The account of its contents above comes from the publisher. Dorrance describes itself as a hybrid publisher that sells publishing packages to authors, and no independent review of the book had been published when this article was updated.

This article was updated on Oct. 11, 2026. The earlier version did not name the book, gave details of its contents and bibliography that the publisher's announcement does not support, and used an unrelated photo. It now names the book, keeps to what the publisher states, adds the documented Hill-Burton history, and lists its sources.