If you were riveted by The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010), read Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum (2024). Journalist Antonia Hylton pens a gripping and disturbing exposé on disparities in the treatment of mental illness in 20th century America. Using over 10 years of research, Hylton focuses on Crownsville Hospital in Maryland—a facility built by its first patients in 1911 before their admittance. The psychiatric hospital was desegregated in 1963 and closed its doors in 2004—but not before destroying so many records.
Hylton traces the history of Crownsville along with the standard practices of mental health treatment, the lack of funding and staff for this institution serving Black patients, and the appalling practice of committing Black folks who were not mentally unwell. The author brings history into the present by looking at current mental health disparities and the ongoing challenges of treatment. It’s not an easy read, but is important in understanding another piece of American history.