The legal battle against controversial developer Paul McGee to remove the words “Homer G. Phillips Hospital” from his three-bed urgent care center will continue despite a St. Louis County judge’s recent ruling.
Speaking at the 28th Homer G. Phillips Public Health Lecture Series at Washington University, Homer G. Phillips Nurses Alumni Association member Lois Jackson shared the details of the prolonged legal fight to protect African American history from McGee’s selfish act.
Jackson told the audience that a copyright infringement lawsuit was filed against McKee in 2022. A federal court postponed the judgment summary three times, prompting the group to change to state court.
“They are now operating without a license, but yet they’re using our name without our permission,” Jackson said. “Both attorneys agreed that they should change from federal to state court on Feb. 24 of this year.”
“We rally in front of the facility on Jefferson every second and fourth Saturday from noon to 1 p.m., weather permitting, so if you’re available, come on down and stand on Jefferson with us.”
On Aug. 8, 2024, Circuit Court Judge Heather Cunningham ruled in McKee’s favor and dismissed the case for trial by jury.
“We will appeal her decision and file with the appellate court in St. Louis,” Jackson said.
Knowing the importance of the ongoing case, Will Ross, MD, associate dean for diversity and the Alumni Endowed Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, asked Jackson to talk about the ruling before Dr. Geoff Ward, the event’s keynote speaker, offered his address.
This year’s lecture, held in October, was titled “Towards Systemic Health Equity: The Unfinished Work of Reconstruction in St. Louis.”
Ward is a professor of African and African American studies and faculty affiliate in the department of sociology and American cultural studies program at Washington University in St. Louis.
He directs the WashU & Slavery Project, a university initiative based in the Center for Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity in collaboration with the Consortium of Universities Studying Slavery. His research explores the histories and legacies of racialized violence and their reparative implications.
“Legacies of slavery and other historical racial violence have also been documented in public health, including disparities in cardiovascular disease and life expectancy,” Ward said.
According to Ward, a recent study found the population enslaved in the U.S. Southern counties in the 1860s is associated with shorter lifespans.
Additional research has found that “widespread declines in heart disease are not as apparent among Black populations living in places with more pronounced histories of slavery as in the case of crime and justice outcomes around the nation.”
“Researchers attribute this legacy of slavery and heart disease mortality to a complex mix of risk exposures and opportunity structures, including uneven diffusion of effective preventive measures and what we might call medical estrangement similar to the concept of legal estrangement by which marginalized populations are alienated from,” Ward said.
Ward took the audience back in history to the 1836 “sadistic lynching” of Francis McIntosh in downtown St. Louis.
He said a journalist recommended, “lowering the veil of oblivion over the whole fatal affair.”
He amplified 1890s newspaper accounts of white students complaining about the presence of Black classmates, writing “It can’t be a high-quality education if Black scholars are here.”
He quoted a letter written in 1906 by Winfield Chaplin, WashU’s fourth chancellor, which discouraged a prospective Black graduate student.
“In a letter he wrote, ‘I am obliged to state to you that Negroes have never been admitted to Washington University, ‘and it would therefore be useless for you to try and make any arrangement to continue your studies here.’”
According to Ward, Chaplin replaced William Greenleaf Eliot as chancellor in 1891, a year before the policy prohibiting Black student admissions was introduced.
He said Chaplin led the institution in a period of financial uncertainty where he and board president Robert Brookings appeared “to have leveraged the market forces of racial capitalism to build the WashU brand, and finances, which included the development of our medical department on a segregated basis.”
Ward also examined how white supremacist ideology reinforced the idea that Black people were biologically inferior.
This includes an 1898 meeting of the Academy of Science of St. Louis that was led by a WashU alum who was then dean of the School of Engineering.
It featured a “pseudoscientific presentation on ‘the sociology of the Negro,’” with a thesis that Black people were savages.
Ward also discussed WashU anthropology and anatomy professor Robert Terry, creator of a collection of unethically acquired skeletal remains composed largely of poor Black St. Louisans.
The skulls were used in “desperate efforts to measure and prove racial difference.”
According to Ward, Terry served as chair of the “Committee on the Negro” established by the National Research Council in 1926, further linking WashU and city to national and international networks of scientific racism that helped sustain systemic inequity.
“This annual event is a cornerstone in our ongoing commitment to celebrate, reflect upon, and learn from the rich legacy of the Homer G. Phillips Hospital and its lasting impact on the medical profession and our community,” said Dr. Sherree Wilson, WashU associate vice chancellor and associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Homer G. Phillips Hospital was a noble and essential institution that served the Black community with unparalleled distinction and dedication.”
Wilson added that Homer G. Phillips was the epicenter of training for Black physicians and nurses for the entire country.
“It was not just a healthcare facility, it was a beacon of hope and a paragon of medical excellence,” Wilson said.
“In its heyday, one out of every three African American physicians in the country were trained at Homer G. Phillips Hospital, including such luminaries as Drs. LaSalle Leffall, James Whittico, Frank Richards, Howard Venable, and of course, Helen Nash.”
Additionally, a new Black history exhibit is on display at WashU.
“I think it’s important, given that we are seeing efforts all around the country, to erase, to eliminate race or Black history and so ensuring that the stories continue is particularly critical,” Dr. Eva Aagaard, WashU senior associate dean for education and vice chancellor for medical education, said.
According to Aagaard, a permanent exhibit was unveiled that depicts the desegregation of the Washington University School of Medicine last April with a timeline that spans two centuries highlighting the experiences of Black employees, students, and patients on the campus.
“The exhibit was years in the making,” Aagaard said.
“It includes 46 images and narratives of racially segregated wards, activists and allies who fought to end segregation, and the achievements of Black people at WashU Medicine, Barnes Jewish Hospital and the St. Louis Children’s Hospital.”
The history that African Americans has here shows how repugnant and corrupt grafted minded whites in America and the world viewed a people of innocence that was written off as subjects justified for mistreatment, oppression, segregation, profit margins to build a society on chattel slavery that the white man viewed himself as Gds representative in white flesh and the Savior of the whole world superiority c taken on with misinformation, scientific manipulation of facts, deception and a list longer than train smoke that degrades the human values of another human being.
I can’t remember the name of any dr or rn that took care of delivering my first two babies there, but l had no complaints either.
They were up to pare, on point, caring and took care of me. Although l did have some complications, and wanted to go home, my dr insisted that l stay until all was well enough, before he discharged me.
I also had to have an intervention due to unwanted issues and visits to say the lease it was an experience that I can’t forget! It was handled effectively by the PD and long distance by my dear father, who couldn’t be here at the time. However he made sure that l was well protected by phone and kept my stay risk free from unpleasant visitors! Omg, l often still think about
Being born at Homer G Phillips gives me reason to be proud of that great community institution…Well, back in the 60 and 70’s when I was growing up in the west end of stL, there was always something about going to Homer G….whether as a patient or visiting a family member..it was special! I can still remember winding thru the entrance and seeing those tan and milk colored bricks….It was filled with care and respect for us as a people; the doctors, nurses, janitors, lawncare staff kept the facility spotless, clean and ohhh those floors….shined like new money! just waiting for our parents backs to turn so we could run, fall and slide all the way down the hall….The uniforms worn by the doctors/nurses commanded respect and honor…ooo soooo white, starched, and proud. We lost a national treasure when it closed and though our community has tried to move on. this loss changed us forever…Make sure the story is told to future generations!..Long Live Homer G. Phillips in our hearts!