65 years ago today - Mar 3, 1952

[Stephen L. Richards]
President Richards called Clarence Wonnacott at the L.D.S. Hospital relative to the report he had submitted on the Blood Bank, to which the First Presidency had given consideration. ... They state that Brother Wonnacott gave them the assurance that he would go into this blood bank arrangement provided one question was decided, and that was the racial question...

He had indicated to the Red Cross people that they would not endeavor to stifle their activity, that we would endeavor to handle blood for them if we could be assured that there would be no racial problem. 'However, they did not indicate to me that they were intending to go into the communities with the promise that whoever gave blood might expect always to have blood furnished to them at all hospitals.' He thought by following such a course we would lose our blood bank.

Pres. Richards said the Red Cross representatives understood that the only matter held in reserve was the racial question, and it was on that account that they approached the First Presidency. ...

Brother Wonnacott expressed doubt about their program for the public to expect blood to

be available to private hospitals, and told President Richards that he had not agreed to that, and would view such a program with considerable alarm, lest we lost the blood bank we have. ... Said he had assumed the Red Cross would operate in emergency cases and not enter the field that the hospitals have taken care of. ...

[Source: The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah 2015, Appendix 2, The Diaries of Marion G. Romney, 1941-1961, Abridged]

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