April 1, 1880 - 134 years-ago today, Homer Gilliam Phillips was born in Sedalia, Missouri. His father, who had been a Methodist minister, died when Homer was a small boy, & he was sent to live with an aunt, who would raise him. After obtaining a law degree from Howard University in our nations capitol, Phillips came to St Louis about the time of the Worlds Fair, & it was here he wed a local actress, Ida Perle Alexander. It wasnt until 1916 that he began to get politically motivated, running for Justice of the Peace in the Republican primary. After losing, he & another candidate filed suit, claiming irregularities in the vote. With the case being thrown out, he ran as an Independent in the general election, finishing third in the three-man race. Even though he was defeated, he became a leader in the black community, & a few years later, when a position became available on the Republicans State Committee, Phillips was nominated for the position. But the incumbent Congressman, L.C. Dyer, named himself to the post. This prompted the Independent Clarion, a Negro newspaper, located at 2304 Market, to point out that as many as 80% of Republican voters in the district were black, & they should run a candidate of their own in the next election. The editorial, written by former white legislature, Theodore Wolfley, went on to say, The time has arrived when Negro voters, in payment for services as valet to the party elephant should demand admittance to the Republican circus through the main entrance, on tickets printed of the same color, & on equal terms with those who have been sitting in the reserved political seats for half a century. In 1922, Phillips supported an $87 million City bond issue, with his primary focus to secure $1 million of this bond issue to construct a new hospital for blacks in North St. Louis. And although the bond issue passed & the funds allocated, it would be six years before the hospital, named in his honor, would open. An event he would not live to see. On June 18, 1931, Homer G. Phillips, was shot & killed while waiting for a bus, shortly after leaving his home at 1121 Aubert, near Delmar. Witnesses identified the killers as George McFarland and Augustus Brooks, but juries found them innocent. Homer G. Phillips Hospital, one of the country’s most prestigious medical institutions, was designed by architect Albert Osburg. Along with Sumner High School, Antioch Baptist Church, and the Annie Malone Children’s Home, Homer G. Phillips Hospital formed a closely related network of stability and pride in The Ville, St. Louis’s premiere black community, during the years of restrictive covenants in housing, and segregation in education. Homer G. Phillips Hospital became one of the few nationally-recognized, fully-equipped hospitals in the country where black doctors, nurses, and technicians could receive training. In less than a decade, Homer G. Phillips Hospital ranked in the upper third of the ten largest general hospitals in the country and gained a national reputation for treatment of the acutely injured. The staff was making valuable contributions to the development of techniques for intravenous protein feeding and for the treatment of gunshot wounds, burns, and ulcers. In addition to providing a fully accredited training program for interns and residents of schools of nursing, the hospital established schools for x-ray technicians, laboratory technicians, and medical record library service. By the early 1950s, Homer G. Phillips Hospital offered advanced training to certified foreign doctors, which helped ease the staff of shortages and gave an opportunity to these physician doctors who were denied training in other hospitals due to race or creed. Yet by 1955, following an order from St. Louis Mayor Raymond Tucker that patients of any race, color, or creed living in the western part of the city must be admitted to the hospital, Homer G. Phillips was no longer an exclusively black institution. In August 1979, a wide range of complex issues surrounding Homer G. Phillips Hospital prompted its closure as a full-service facility. In the 1990s, the nurses’ wing was renovated into low-income housing; and in 2004, the hospital was reopened as the Homer G. Phillips Dignity House, a residential care facility for the elderly.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 07:27:23 +0000
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