Washington University affiliates with St. Louis Medical College, establishing the Medical Department of Washington University. Eight years later, the Missouri Medical College joins the university. Both the university and the medical college are segregated. Image: Missouri Medical College and Washington University Hospital, Jefferson and Lucas Avenue Buildings
After relocating from its original 1879 whites-only facility, St. Louis Children’s Hospital accepts Black children at a walk-in clinic but not as inpatients. Image: St. Louis Children’s Hospital, 1884
A state ordinance abolishes slavery in Missouri.
The first city hospital, St. Louis City Hospital, opens as a segregated institution, treating Black patients only in inferior parts of the hospital. It becomes known as City Hospital #1.
Missouri joins the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state through federal legislation known as the Missouri Compromise.