Following the Civil War, the hospital catered to the medical needs of thousands of African Americans who fled the Southern United States for the Northeast as part of the Great Migration.

[12] Freedmen's Hospital and Asylum was first established in 1862 on the grounds of the Camp Barker, 13th and R Streets, NW, and cared for freed, disabled and aged blacks.

[13] After the Civil War, it became the teaching hospital of Howard University Medical School, established in 1868, while remaining under federal control.

[15] In 1881, Charles Burleigh Purvis was appointed by President Chester Arthur to Surgeon-in-Charge at the Freedmen's hospital.

When Abraham Flexner visited the District of Columbia that year, he was impressed by the new, 278-bed Freedmen's Hospital and thought only Howard University Medical School in the city had a promising future.

[19][20] The original Freedmen's building on Bryant Street still stands, although it now houses Howard University's John H. Johnson School of Communications.

Anita L. A. Jenkins, former president of Sycamore Medical Center, part of Kettering Health Network, became the hospital's chief executive.