1976: Barnes Hospital, City of St. Louis name tennis courts in memory of Richard Hudlin

Barnes Hospital officials and the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department of the City of St. Louis dedicate tennis courts in memory of Richard Hudlin, a nationally prominent Black tennis coach and longtime teacher at Sumner High School who successfully sued St. Louis’s Muny Tennis Association to end segregation of the city’s tennis courts in 1945. After leasing the land from the city, Barnes Hospital constructed the tennis courts, now known as Hudlin Park, along with an underground parking garage in the southeast corner of Forest Park. Read more about Hudlin and the park on Bernard Becker Medical Library’s website. 

A group of people sit or stand with their backs to us, listening to a speaker in the background standing in front of outdoor tennis courts on a seemingly sunny day.

Image: The dedication ceremony for the Hudlin Tennis Courts, October 14, 1976