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“It does hurt when good friends who are intelligent make inadvertent remarks which demonstrate that deep down they have an undercoating of ingrained prejudice.”
“RESOLVED, it is the policy of Barnes Hospital to operate without racial discrimination.”
— Barnes Hospital Board of Trustees, April 27, 1965
“We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”
— U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, 1954
“I had to keep at this. Whenever I turned my back, segregation was restored.”
— Bernard Becker, MD
“I remember going into [0400] with the surgery chairman Carl Moyer and seeing only Black men. I was shocked by that and, actually, I’ve never forgiven myself because I didn’t make an issue of it. Of course, I was a poor kid from Brooklyn, and I couldn’t run the risk of being kicked out of medical school, but I should have said something: that this is not right.”
— Steven Teitelbaum, MD
“The practice of the Negro physician will be limited to his own race, which in its turn will be cared for better by good Negro physicians than by poor white ones.”
— Abraham Flexner, The Flexner Report on Medical Education, 1910
“It is vital to recognize the injustices of the past and to acknowledge that their impact still resonates today. We cannot erase that past, but we can and do commit to ensuring that our BJC HealthCare institutions are welcoming and inclusive for our employees and patients, and that we provide the highest quality of care to all members of our community.”
— Rich Liekweg, president and CEO, BJC HealthCare
2022: WUSM street re-christened “Nash Way”

A street on the Medical Campus is re-christened “Nash Way” in honor of distinguished Black sister-and-brother pediatricians, Helen E. Nash, MD, and Homer E. Nash Jr., MD. Image: A plaque on the south wall of the Eric P. Newman Education Center commemorates the naming of Nash Way.
2021: Opeolu M. Adeoye, MD: First Black person to lead newly formed WUSM department

Opeolu M. Adeoye, MD, becomes the first Black person to lead a newly formed department at the School of Medicine when he is named head of the new Department of Emergency Medicine. He is also the inaugural BJC HealthCare Distinguished Professor of Emergency Medicine. Image: Opeolu M. Adeoye, MD
2021: WUSM releases Commitment to Anti-Racism
The School of Medicine releases a “Commitment to Anti-Racism” statement, articulating the school’s intent to address systemic disparities across its missions of education, research and patient care. “There are current structures, practices, and policies within our own healthcare, research, and education systems and institution that are directly in conflict with our ability to achieve health, […]