“Climbing the Ladder, Chasing the Dream: The History of Homer G. Phillips Hospital”

The 73rd Historia Medica Lecture is hosted by the Bernard Becker Medical Library in collaboration with the Center for History of Medicine.

Abstract:  From 1937 to 1979, one of the premier African-American hospitals in the United States thrived in north St. Louis. During its heyday, Homer G. Phillips was a leading place for black interns and residents to find training denied them in other hospitals, and for nurses, many from working-class families, to receive an exceptional education—and join the middle class. The hospital closed, amid controversy, at the end of the Civil Rights era. But rich memories of this hospital and its significance remain vivid in its graduates, staff and patients. Ms. O’Connor will discuss the hospital’s history and these stories, taken from a new book she has written with the help of Dr. Will Ross.

Ms. O’Connor is an award-winning, St. Louis-based, freelance writer and editor. She specializes in historical and medical writing, and is the author of 13 books on Midwest history. For more than three decades, her stories have appeared in local and national publications. In 2001, she won a regional Emmy Award for her PBS documentary Oh Freedom After While: The Missouri Sharecropper Protest of 1939

Free and open to the public. Refreshments served.

Center for History of Medicine lectures

For inquiries contact Debra Deiermann.