Category: State/U.S. News
“Where you live in St. Louis has a powerful impact on your health. Residents of ZIP codes separated by only a few miles have up to an 18-year difference in life expectancy.”
“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
“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
1964: Civil Rights Act becomes law
President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law. In 1965, he signs the Voting Rights Act and the Medicare and Medicaid Act, providing health insurance for the elderly and those of limited income.
1960s: Medical education remains segregated nationwide
Medical education is still segregated nationwide. Fewer than three percent of entering medical students are Black, and most of those are in two schools: Howard University College of Medicine and Meharry Medical College.
1954: U.S. Supreme Court rules public school segregation unconstitutional
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 […]
1948: U.S. Supreme Court decides Shelley v. Kraemer
The U.S. Supreme Court decides Shelley v. Kraemer, which originated in St. Louis. The court rules that enforcing racially restrictive covenants is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
1947: “Higher Education for American Democracy” report published
The report “Higher Education for American Democracy,” commissioned by President Harry S. Truman, recommends that “federal appropriations [should] be given only to those schools willing to comply” with desegregation. Washington University dissents, saying that the university “disagreed with any recommendation as to the immediate abandonment of segregation” and that dismantling of inequality must be made […]
1910: Flexner Report on Medical Education published
The Flexner Report on Medical Education scolds poorly run medical schools and leads to the closing of many. On Abraham Flexner’s recommendation, Meharry Medical College and Howard University College of Medicine are the only two historically Black medical schools that survive the initial wave of closings. “[T]he physical well-being of the negro is not only […]
1896: U.S. Supreme Court rules on “separate but equal” decision
The U.S. Supreme Court decides the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case. It rules that segregation laws do not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race are equal in quality. It becomes known as the “separate but equal” decision, spawning the “Jim Crow” laws that bar Black people from sharing public […]