veterans. On March 4, 1921, in response to the need for veterans' hospitals, Congress appropriated funds to construct additional hospitals for veterans covered by the War Risk Insurance Act amendment. In addition, in 1926 Congress required the Bureau of War Risk Insurance to make allotments to the National Home to fund alterations or improvement to existing Home facilities to care for beneficiaries. Immediately after the war, the National Home took actions to accommodate the large number of returning veterans: 1) transformed facilities of two branches into hospitals and classified them for specialized care (Marion for neuropsychiatric cases and Mountain for tuberculosis, which were the two classes of illness with the highest numbers of patients), 2) modernized existing facilities and established tuberculosis wards (Central and Pacific); and 3) built entirely new hospitals (Northwestern), using funding from the Treasury Department. In August 1921, Congress established the Veterans Bureau to manage all veterans’ benefits. On April 29, 1922, this agency assumed responsibility for fifty-seven veterans’ hospitals operated by the Public Health Service, as well as nine under construction by the Treasury Department. The participation of African Americans in World War I and issues of racism in US society added to the complexity of caring for veterans. African Americans pressed their case to the federal government, feeling that their service had created an obligation by the government to help them in the war's aftermath. African Americans had difficulty gaining medical care, especially in the South. The federal government authorized construction of what was originally called the "Tuskegee Home", now the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Medical Center, on land adjacent to Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Opened in 1923 with 600 beds, it was intended to serve the 300,000 African-American veterans in the South. The complex eventually had 27 buildings, and more than 2300 beds by 1973. By 1926, the Board began to see a new trend in veterans’ use of the National Home. For the most part, the World War I veterans were receiving medical treatment and returning to civilian life, rather than entering the domiciliary program for the Home. The Board noted that hospital care costs were almost three times the cost of domiciliary care, and it required large capital investments in hospitals, medical equipment, and professional staff. By 1928, the Board concluded that it was not capable of managing the National Home as a national medical service. In June 1929, the president of the