Established in 1923, the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital was the first Veterans Administration hospital in the nation administered by an all African American medical staff. After World War I, African American veterans had difficulty securing proper treatment in segregated hospitals, especially in the South. Despite violent threats, Robert R. Moton, the second president of Tuskegee University, John Kenney, director of John Andrew Hospital, African American media, and others persuaded the Veterans Bureau to approve an African American staffed hospital, and President Calvin Coolidge ordered it. The Tuskegee VA Hospital ranked with the four leading Veterans Bureau hospitals, and by 1930 it had 52 permanent buildings and 97 professional staff providing treatment in all branches of medicine and surgery as well as ancillary services including clinical laboratories, roentgenology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics, and a medical library. It continued to be staffed by African Americans until full integration at veteran hospitals and was listed in the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on April 14, 1992.