Carl A. Moyer, MD, head of Washington University Surgery, gives faculty status or Barnes Hospital admitting privileges to Black Homer G. Phillips surgeons Frank Richards, MD, William Sinkler, MD, and others. “Dr. Moyer was a terrific guy, very interested in Homer Phillips. The only way I got into the St. Louis Surgical Society was that […]
A Black ophthalmologist, Howard Phillip Venable, MD, joins the School of Medicine faculty. Later, he is promoted to assistant clinical professor of ophthalmology. He is also a longtime physician at Homer G. Phillips Hospital and is director of ophthalmology there when the hospital closes in 1979. Howard Phillip Venable oral history audio recording available via […]
Renard Hospital, the psychiatric hospital, integrates after white psychiatrists Samuel Guze, MD, and George Winokur, MD, quietly begin admitting Black patients. Samuel B. Guze oral history audio recording available via Bernard Becker Medical Library Archives » Images: Samuel Guze, MD | George Winokur, MD
Black pediatrician Homer E. Nash Jr., MD, joins the Children’s Hospital medical staff, after earning his medical degree at Meharry Medical College and performing residency training at Homer G. Phillips Hospital. He dedicates his 46-year career to providing care to children in North St. Louis, many of them poor and underserved. He wins Children’s Hospital’s […]
In a landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously that segregation of children in public schools is unconstitutional, thus overturning the “separate but equal” ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. Chief Justice Earl Warren writes in his opinion: “Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has […]
Jewish Hospital accepts Black patients on a non-segregated basis, becoming among the earliest private hospitals in the region to do so.
Bernard Becker, MD, a white physician, arrives at Barnes Hospital to head ophthalmology and is dismayed by the segregation he finds in McMillan Hospital. He threatens to leave unless integration occurs, and McMillan quickly desegregates. Later, he said: “I faced a good deal of opposition from my own visiting staff. I had to keep at […]
Wanda Hall is the first Black student to graduate from Washington University School of Nursing. She earns a master’s degree in 1953 and joins the faculty as an instructor in psychiatric nursing.
The U.S. Children’s Bureau awards Alexis Hartmann, MD, of Children’s Hospital funding to establish an expanded pediatric residency at Homer G. Phillips Hospital under Helen Nash, MD; Park White, MD; and Neil Middelkamp, MD. They also receive funds to build a modern unit for premature babies at Homer G. Phillips.
Edgar R. Thomas becomes the first Black medical student at the School of Medicine but transfers after his first year, going on to earn a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in zoology from Washington University. Image: Edgar R. Thomas