The Black Hospital of Excellence They Fought to Shut Down

In the mid-20th century (1914), in segregated St. Louis, Homer G. Phillips Hospital was built to cater to the city’s Black population.

Black Folks were tired of the 23 year old struggle of not having adequate medical care for themselves. They literally could not go to white hospitals, and unfortunately white hospitals were the only hospitals around. So, what did they do? They built a medical facility specifically staffed by Black doctors, Black nurses, Black technicians, and Black administrators.

Homer Garland Phillips (1878–1931), born John Wesley Phillips, was an outstanding lawyer, anti-segregation civil rights activist, Republican political backer, community leader and owner of two popular black St. Louis newspapers. He was a brilliant man!

America literally criminally neglected Black health but thankfully Black people were steadily graduating from Howard University and Meharry Medical College. The so called Christian hospitals refused to admit Black people as staff members or even interns. So Blacks used their political voting power and got rid of the Republican mayor and his party who were responsible for stealing the funding money.

Apparently, there was a 1923 bond that provided $1 million to open a hospital for Blacks, but instead they had used it for street lighting and sidewalk installation, totally ignoring any funding to help the Black people.

With the new Democratic mayor in place, he installed Roosevelt administration, Harold Ickes and secretary of the Interior and brought the Works Project Administration to construct a building to accommodate 635 patients. It saw 100,000 patients in it’s first year from 1937 to 1938. It was ranked in the 10 largest hospitals in the country and was only one of the two institutions where Black doctors could go for training. It created almost 1,000 Black healthcare jobs, hiring hundreds of aides, janitors, ambulance drivers, etc. It also provided a training facility for the education of nurses and housing for them during that time.

For more than 30 years, it was the primary source of medical care for indigent Negroes. The hospital complex was the only agency of city government where Blacks held significant jobs in professional and white-collar positions.

Many prominent physicians were made right here, including the first Black president of the American Cancer Society.

Black people were excluded from employment in every major area. They couldn’t get jobs in department stores, banks, bakeries or even publishing companies. 75 percent of all black doctors in the country interned at Homer G. Phillips Hospital. By 1961, it had trained the largest number of Black doctors and nurses in the world!

No surprise then that white politicians wanted to close the facility!

Rebecca Robinson-Williiams worked to create a documentary called “The Color of Medicine” documenting the history of the hospital as well as the legacy of her father, Dr. Earle Robinson Jr. who worked at the hospital at the time and told stories about his experiences there. He told a story about a pregnant lady that suffered from eclampsia, a serious condition where pregnant women suffer from seizures. White hospitals were still using sedatives to treat seizures, but the Black doctors used magnesium sulfate to prevent them instead of just treating them.

“That showed me that we were far ahead some of the hospitals in the country,” Robinson said of Homer G. Phillips.

“It was one of the best places for African-Americans to train in the country. And that’s a pretty big deal, and I felt like this was something that other people needed to hear.”

National Health plans of the 1970’s were working towards making sure this hospital wasn’t going to last another day. Efforts to close the facility were led by numerous white politicians, the two medical schools of Washington and St. Louis universities, the publishers and editors of the two daily newspapers, and downtown financial leaders.

Imagine so many other institutions against the simple principle of people wanting healthcare like everyone else. What kind of people would be so cruel as to want to take away basic necessities from people?

The hospital had found a local advocate, John Bass, who was elected and saved Homer G Phillips during his term. But Bass was defeated by a Raymond Percich, who was the comptroller under the James Conway mayoral administration who wasn’t having any of it. Activists and employees protested, held sit its, and tried to work all kind of political angles to save the hospital, but Percich wasn’t putting a penny into the city budget for Homer G Philips.

“They snatched a jewel from the people in this community,” said a lady from the documentary.

In a powerful statement by civil rights advocate Walle Amusa: “This community did not give up the hospital, it was stolen.”

Homer G Phillips closed after a 20 day fight from the people of St. Louis and beyond. The city literally marched in the hospital and forcibly closed it; something they were probably waiting years to do. To make matters worse, Philips was shot and murdered by two men in 1931 near Aubert and Delmar. The two suspects were never convicted due to “lack of evidence,” and his murder was never solved. This isn’t any surprise to me, given white folks at that time murdered any Black person that was pushing the Black society towards a better life.

Unfortunately, medicine does have a price and a color, even today. We still continuously fight for equal healthcare treatment. The hospital was designated a City Landmark in 1980 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. In 2000, renovation of the building began, and in 2003 it reopened as the Homer G. Phillips Dignity House/Senior Living Community. Phillips was a tireless crusader for civil rights and the interests of the Black citizens of St. Louis. The hospital that bore his name stood as a testament to the high esteem in which he was held. To this day, it remains a beautiful symbol of Black achievement and what we did and can still do.

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