There is a common denominator among those elders who share first-hand professional connections with Homer G. Phillips Hospital. They exude a passion and reverence for the historically Black medical institution that extend beyond what words can express.
Author Candace O’Connor details cherished memories and weaves them around the hospital’s storied legacy in her recently released book, “Climbing the Ladder, Chasing The Dream: A History of Homer G. Phillips Hospital.”
The book began with a referral. Ethel Long – a Homer G. Phillips Nursing School graduate – received O’Connor’s name from the Missouri Historical Society when she inquired about authors with experience in historical and medical writing.
“She called me and said, ‘would you consider this?” O’Connor said. “She said, ‘we have nurses and doctors who are eager to tell their stories.’ I thought, ‘this is amazing. I can’t say no to this. Right there in that conversation, I said yes.”
O’Connor, who has written 14 books, was no stranger to the Black hospital and world-class medical training institute that was an anchor in St. Louis’ historic Ville neighborhood from 1937-1979. She had been hearing about Homer G. Phillips for years – particularly during her tenure as an editor for the Missouri Historical Society Press. She edited “Discovering African American St. Louis” by Dr. John A. Wright Sr., which made several mentions of the hospital.
Wright grew up in The Ville and his mother worked at Homer G. Phillips Hospital. It was fitting that he was included as a source in “Climbing the Ladder, Chasing The Dream.” He is joined by men and women who went on to become giants in the medical field thanks to the one-of-a-kind opportunity that the hospital afforded to them.
The process of writing the book offered powerful lessons for O’Connor.
“I learned with this book that you have to catch history while you can,” O’Connor said. “When people die, their memories are lost. And I was so fortunate to be able to talk with some of these folks and do long interviews with them while they were still alive.”
Dr. James Whittico and Alice Okrafo-Smart were centenarians when they sat down with O’Connor to share their Homer G. Phillips Hospital history. They spoke with the type of color and vivid detail that reinforce the hospital’s magnificence. Whittico was so overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the building when he arrived as a young intern in 1940 that he pulled his car over to take in the sight of it. “He said, ‘I had to turn off the engine and just look at this beautiful hospital,’” O’Connor said. “At that moment, I said, ‘that’s the beginning of the book!’”
Another major takeaway for O’Connor over the four years she spent conducting interviews, research, and writing “Climbing the Ladder, Chasing the Dream” – and through conversations with book contributor Dr. Will Ross – was that Homer G. Phillips was so much more than just a Black hospital.
“It was not just a place where patients could get better and medical professionals could get trained and go out into the world,” O’Connor said. “It was an engine for social change. It was a place where people pulled themselves up.”
The book also offers context for why those precious few remaining elders who walked the halls of Homer G. Phillips – and those who have been entrusted to keep their memories alive – view developer Paul McKee’s recent naming of a three-bed clinic not as tribute, but blasphemy of the tallest order.
Homer G. Phillips was not a medical care convenience mart, as McKee’s building implies. And O’Connor’s thoughtfully curated interviews and research allow the original hospital to be rightfully remembered as a grand, glorious space that was as much a medical miracle as the groundbreaking, pioneering treatment given to patients while simultaneously training future leaders in the field.
Pulsing through the heart of The Ville in St. Louis city was a Black medical Mecca –where unapologetic standards of Black excellence were upheld, and with a legacy that still impacts the medical field and Black community more than 40 years after its doors were forced to close.
Though he didn’t live to see for himself, it was clear in his relentless fight that the hospital’s namesake Homer G. Phillips understood the potential impact of having such a place available to the Black community. One can’t help but wonder if he imagined the hospital would have such a legacy. Homer G. Phillips Hospital was a sacred space – and one of the few institutions in the entire world where Black people had the freedom to fully live and operate at their highest professional potential.
“Several nurses came from rural, impoverished backgrounds and went on to get jobs all across the country,” O’Connor said. “Because all you had to do was say, ‘I’m from Homer Phillips,’ and they would say ‘you’re hired.’ It didn’t just change the nurse. It created opportunities for whole families.”
O’Connor pointed to 1955 Homer G. Phillips Nursing School graduate Georgia Anderson as a prime example. Born in Arkansas, the hospital reshaped not only Anderson’s destiny, but also that of her son – who became a doctor.
It was Anderson who provided the inspiration for the book’s title.
“You can’t climb up if there is not a ladder or some way to move yourself up,” Anderson said, according to O’Connor. “In the areas where we came from, there were no opportunities. So Homer G. was the ladder for me – and I’m not sorry that I started climbing.”
“Climbing the Ladder, Chasing The Dream: The History of Homer G. Phillips Hospital” is available for purchase on amazon.com, google.com, locally at Left Bank Books (399 N. Euclid) and other outlets.
