“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;”>“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, right then they shall hear from heaven, I will heal their land…”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:”> Homer G. Phillips, a black attorney in St. Louis, Mo., took on the fight to get a hospital for blacks in St. Louis to heal their bodies at a time when healthcare for blacks was difficult to access. Healthcare was given to blacks in the basements of City Hospital No. 1 and No. 2, and blacks were relegated to second class citizenship. Homer G. Phillips (1880-1931) became the champion for getting a hospital built that would take blacks out of their second-class status.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:”> Attorney Phillips began this movement for a hospital for blacks in St. Louis by proposing a bond issue to pay for the funding of building a hospital in 1923. In 1922 City Hospital No. 2 had its first graduating class for a school of nursing for black nurses. As steam began to move forward to creating a hospital for blacks, it became clear that there was a great need for training for black medical professionals. So, the fight for a hospital for blacks waged on for 14 years as Attorney Phillips and others fought to get the bond issue passed for building the hospital.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:”> For reasons not known, Homer G. Phillips was tragically shot to death at the corners of Aubert Avenue and Delmar and the murder was never solved in June of 1931. During the depths of the Great Depression, members of the black community continued to forge forward to make the dream a reality. The bond issue was passed and the hospital was named for its champion – the “Homer G. Phillips Hospital” for blacks built in the village called the Ville neighborhood-the seat of Black Culture in St. Louis. The hospital was dedicated in 1937, which included five buildings – an administrative building, a building for nurse’s apartments, a service building, north and south wards buildings for patients, and quarters for interns and resident physicians.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:”> The dedication ceremony was a major event for the City of St. Louis, attended by the Governor of Missouri, Lloyd Stark, Secretary of the Interior, Harold I. Ickes of the Roosevelt Administration, and City Comptroller Louis Holte. Thousands of people came to the ceremony to dedicate the hospital which would also be a first-class medical training institution. By 1939, there were 52 black physicians and as a training facility accepted over 50 percent of black graduates of the United States’ medical schools.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:”> “Homer G.” was a Class “A” General Hospital approved for internships and residencies by the American Council of Medical Education and the American College of Surgeons. It was one of two institutions in America where doctors of African descent after receiving their M.D. degrees could go for hospital training.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:”> “Homer G.” also provided learning opportunities for the village – the community where students from Sumner High, Turner Middle and Simmons school could participate in healthcare field trips. As a medical institution it expanded learning opportunities in the allied health and specialty fields and at the height of its magnificent glory provided jobs for the village employing between 800 -900 people. In 1979 Homer G. Phillips as a hospital closed.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:”> God always sends a messenger, a prophet, a leader to lead his people out of the wilderness.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family:”> Please come and join us at Washington Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, 3200 Washington Blvd., St. Louis at 6 p.m. Friday, February 17 for our Black History Celebration with a film showing and discussion and history on Homer G. Phillips Hospital and Sunday worship February 19, 2012 at 10 a.m. celebrating our rich cultural heritage.
