The move to consolidate, and eventually to close, Homer G. Phillips Hospital sparked a major uprising in St. Louis, Missouri, during the years 1976 through 1984. This article explores the struggle in St. Louis’s black community to keep open, and later to reopen, Homer G. Phillips Hospital from a vantage point that demonstrates the diversity of opinion surrounding the struggle. For many black St. Louis residents, the physical space of Homer G. Phillips Hospital was a metaphor for identity, a manifestation of citizenship rights, and a means of delineating a territory of shared histories, understandings, and values. For others, it was a relic of segregation and racism. In seeking to understand the diversity of public reaction, this article addresses class antagonism, examines the varied and divergent motivations for eliminating or maintaining services at the hospital, and reconsiders the discourse of “black politics.” It is a decisive illustration of how the national twin crises of deindustrialization and privatization affected a heterogeneous black community.
Sally Thran , "Predicts Defeat of Phillips Plan," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 5, 1976, 3A.
2.
Bob Christman , "Save Hospitals, Panel Urges," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 25, 1976, 1C.
3.
Frando Webb , "DePaul Closing Stirs ‘Health Desert’ Fears," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 19, 1976, 1C.
4.
Homer G. Phillips: 25th Anniversary, unpaged program booklet, John D. Buckner Papers, Western Historical Manuscript Collection (hereafter referred to as WHMC) 468, Box 1.
5.
Preston Smith adopts a similar approach in his analysis of postwar housing struggles in Chicago. See Preston H. Smith, "The Quest for Racial Democracy: Black Civic Ideology and Housing Interests in Postwar Chicago," Journal of Urban History26, no. 2 (2000): 132-33.
6.
When describing unstable, deindustrialized labor markets such as St. Louis, I refer to low-income residents who are in and out of work, whether or not they are at times receiving assistance, as "working class." As Robin Kelley writes, the black working class comprises "simply people whose very survival depends on work or some form of income." See Robin D. G. Kelley, Race Rebels (New York: Free Press, 1994), 13.
7.
Since the mid-nineteenth century, the urban environment has been "contested terrain" for disenfranchised groups and individuals with a variety of motives, including social status, residence rights, and recreation, but rarely preservation. See Andrew Hurley, Environmental Inequalities (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 3.
8.
In researching this article, I have relied heavily on newspaper accounts to reconstruct the narrative of events from 1976 through 1984, when the final bond issue to reopen the hospital failed. I have consulted the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the city’s largest mainstream newspaper, and the St. Louis American, the city’s largest black-owned newspaper, to tease out multiple voices. Rather than relying on reporters’ interpretations of events, I have concentrated on quoted material to gauge reaction and response to events as they unfolded. I have also examined posters, flyers, brochures, memos, and unpublished interoffice reports as well as many of the hundreds of letters in support of, and against, the closing of Phillips Hospital.
9.
Joseph Heathcott , "Black Archipelago: Politics and Civic Life in the Jim Crow City," Journal of Social History38, no. 3 (2005): 709-14.
10.
Sandra Schoenberg, "Community Stability and Decay in St. Louis: The Ethnic Factor in Two Urban Neighborhoods," Ethnicity 7, no. 3(1980): 407-408.
11.
Heathcott, "Black Archipelago ," 718.
12.
Ibid., 713-24.
13.
Ernest Calloway , "The Strange 50-Year Mystery of the Unsolved Murder of Homer Phillips," St. Louis American, February 5, 1981, 7.
14.
Dedicatory Program, Homer G. Phillips Hospital, February 22, 1937, Lowe Family Papers, WHMC 123, Folder 2.
15.
National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form, March 31, 1982, St. Louis Vertical File, WHMC 694, Box 16.
16.
Report to the League of Women Voters Civic Committee, April 30, 1943, League of Women Voters Records, WHMC 530, Box 54; Letter from Mrs. Ralph W. Thayer to Mrs. Avery Alexander, May 5, 1943, League of Women Voters Records, WHMC 530, Box 54.
17.
H. Phillip Venable , "The History of Homer G. Phillips Hospital ," Journal of the National Medical Association53, no. 6 (1961): 541-55.
18.
Schoenberg, " Community Stability and Decay," 416.
19.
Ibid, 416; Heathcott, " Black Archipelago," 706.
20.
Mitchell F. Rice and Woodrow Jones Jr., Public Policy and the Black Hospital (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press , 1994), 101.
21.
Harry F.Dowling, CityHospitals: The Undercare of the Underprivileged ( Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982 ), 185.
22.
Dowling, City Hospitals , 185.
23.
According to historian Mitchell F. Rice, two prominent phenomena, when combined with decreasing tax revenue, precipitated the closings of black hospitals: integration and the advent of Medicare and Medicaid. Municipalities built black hospitals, he writes, to serve black people in an era when they could not receive adequate health care at white-run facilities due to exclusion or limited admission. Integration lessened the use of black hospitals by both black physicians and black self-pay patients as both groups sought the larger facilities and better equipment found at private, historically white hospitals. Price controls instituted under Medicare and Medicaid led private hospitals to limit or exclude patients covered by those programs. As a result, the indigent patient load was relegated to public hospitals, which in turn suffered financial disadvantage. Black public hospitals also tend to carry a large load of nonpaying patients not covered by Medicare or Medicaid, further challenging the financial health of the hospitals. See Rice and Jones, Public Policy, 107-108.
24.
"Hospital Warning," editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch , March 18, 1977, 2E.
25.
Jo Mannies , "Surprise Said to Have Aided Phillips Move ," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 16, 1979, 12A.
26.
Gerald M. Boyd, "Estimate Board Keeps All Four Hospitals ," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 7, 1976, 1A.
27.
Leroy Pesch and Symuel Smith, Report of the Study on Hospital Needs under the Jurisdiction of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, September 28, 1976, James F. Conway Papers, University Archives, Department of Special Collections, Washington University Libraries (hereafter referred to JFC Papers, WUSC), Series 2, Box 22.
28.
Gerald M. Boyd, "Black Leaders Say Hospital Consultants Exceeded Mandate," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 22, 1976, 1A.
29.
"Mr. Simon Sits," editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch , September 29, 1976, 2B.
30.
Tommy Robertson , "Would Back Closing Hospital if Panel Urges It," St. Louis Post Dispatch, June 25, 1977 , 3A.
31.
Health Service System Task Force Report to Mayor James F. Conway, December 16, 1977, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22.
32.
Philip Sutin , "City, Phillips Hospitals Merger Will Begin May 1," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 9, 1978, 3A; Philip Sutin, "Black Aldermen May Try to Block Budget over Phillips," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 23, 1978, 2C; Philip Sutin and David Fink, "Phillips Hospital Won’t Be Shut, Conway Tells Internes Group," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 2, 1978, 1C.
33.
Steve Korris, "Mayor’s Hospital Plan Angers Black Politicians; Big Fight Promised ," St. Louis American, May 4, 1978, 1; Robert Kelly, "Racism behind Plan to Merge Hospitals, Detroit Mayor Says," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 4, 1978, 9A; Gregory Freeman, "New Plan by Hospital Task Force Draws Fire from Black Aldermen," St. Louis American, January 5, 1978 , 1.
34.
Paul Friesema , "Black Control of Central Cities: The Hollow Prize," American Institute of Planners Journal35 (1969): 75-79; Neil Kraus and Todd Swanstrom, "Minority Mayors and the Hollow-prize Problem," PS: Political Science and Politics34, no. 1 (2001): 102.
35.
Friesema, "Black Control of Central Cities," 77.
36.
Lucius Barker , "Limits of Political Strategy: A Systemic View of the African American Experience," American Political Science Review88, no. 1 ( 1994): 4-8.
37.
Manning Marable, Beyond Black and White: Transforming African-American Politics ( London: Verso, 1995), 77.
38.
Adolph Reed Jr. , Stirrings in the Jug: Black Politics in the Post-segregation Era (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), 5.
39.
Letter from William Douthit to James F. Conway, April 25, 1980, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 65.
40.
Report on Health Care Delivery, booklet, October 31, 1980, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22.
41.
Letter from James F. Conway to Reverend Haymond Fortenberry, September 26, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22; Letter from James F. Conway to Reverend D. C. Fleary, September 20, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22.
42.
Letter from Ridgeway A. Butler to Mayor James F. Conway, May 4, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 23; Letter from Dumena Thompson to Mayor James F. Conway, May 22, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 23.
43.
Letter from James F. Conway to Reverend Haymond Fortenberry, September 26, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22; LaBertha Blair and James Whittico, "Task Force Members," St. Louis American, 9; Clarice Murphy, "What Task Members Think," St. Louis American, 3.
44.
Resolution of the Ministers to Save Homer G. Phillips Hospital, September 20, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22.
45.
George E. Curry, "Angela Davis Assails Cutbacks at Phillips ," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 29, 1979 , 1C.
46.
Heywood Sanders , Research Brief: The Realities of Convention Centers as Economic Development Strategy, (Brookings Institute , 2005), http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20050117_conventioncenters.pdf.
47.
Letter from Lorraine Odum to Mayor James F. Conway, July 31, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22.
48.
Religious institutions in America, as sources of self-empowerment and symbols of indigenous culture, have served as a locus of black resistance dating back to times of slavery. The black church provided the leadership, interaction, and communication networks necessary for effective collective action during the civil rights movement, and these roles have been preserved in the so-called post-civil rights era. See Fredrick C. Harris, Something Within: Religion in African-American Political Activism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 6; regarding the role of the black church in post-civil rights era politics; see Katherine Tate, From Protest to Politics: The New Black Voters in American Elections (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993).
49.
William C. Lhotka and Geof Dubson, "300 Rally for Phillips at City Hall," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 9, 1979, 1B; Robert Kelly, "Ministers Pushing to Keep Phillips as General Hospital," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 26, 1979, 16B; "Black Ministers to Appeal for Phillips Donations," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 12, 1979, 1B.
50.
Letter from Leroy Muhammad to James F. Conway, June 8, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 23; Letter from Chevis Vaughn to James F. Conway, May 31, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22.
51.
Resolution of the Ministers to Save Homer G. Phillips Hospital, September 20, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22.
52.
Daphne Walker , "Homer Phillips Closing Not Isolated Incident ," St. Louis American, March 1, 1979, 14.
53.
George E. Curry , "Group Withdraws Plan to Run Phillips ," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 19, 1979 , 1A.
54.
David Fink , "North Side Leaders Plan Hospital Boycott," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 8, 1979, 1C.
55.
Letter from Jacqueline Bell to James F. Conway, May 22, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 23.
56.
Because the St. Louis print media did not often identify specific protest groups, often simply referring to them as "the protesters," I am not always able to specify which groups were responsible for the protest actions described in this article. To fully document the diversity of struggle involved in the Phillips Hospital closing, however, I include these uncredited activities.
57.
David Fink and Robert Kelly, "Hospital Protesters Undaunted by 47 Arrests ," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 1, 1979 , 1A.
58.
Letter to the editor from the Ad Hoc Committee to Save Homer G. Phillips Hospital, St. Louis American, July 26, 1979, 6.
59.
Frank Chapman , Notes for a Report on Public Health Care and Homer G. Phillips, undated, Black History Project Collection, WHMC 201, Box 6.
60.
Justice for Zenobia Thompson, brochure, undated, Black History Project Collection, WHMC 201, Box 6.
61.
"Save Homer G. Phillips Hosp. NOW," 1980 Poster, no date, St. Louis Vertical File, WHMC 694, file 7.
62.
Steve Korris , "Middle Class Manipulates Black Poor, Calloway Charges," St. Louis American, March 29, 1979 , 1.
63.
Richard M. Merelman , Representing Black Culture: Racial Conflict and Cultural Politics in the United States (New York: Routledge, 1995), 79-88.
64.
Steve Korris, "Mayor’s Critics Growing Bolder," St. Louis American, March 22, 1979, 1; Bennie Rodgers and Daphne Walker, "Save Phillips Committee Has More Confusion Now than Ever Before," St. Louis American, April 26, 1979, 14; "Poor Support; Plenty Standing Room at Phillips’ ‘Mass’ Rally," St. Louis American, June 28, 1979, 1.
65.
Interoffice memo from James H. Sullivan to all concerned, August 1, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 23.
66.
Jo Mannies and D.D. Obika, "Phillips Admissions Dwindle; Protesters Thrarted," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 3, 1979, 3A; Yvonne Samuel Major, "Phillips Struggle Intensifies," St. Louis Post-Dispatch , August 6, 1979, 1B.
67.
Robert L. Joiner , "120 Police Mass at Phillips for Transfer of Patients," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 17, 1979, 1A; "Massed Policemen Shield Phillips," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 17, 1979, 1A; Robert L. Joiner and Sally Bixby Defty, "Phillips Backers Threaten Boycott," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 18, 1979, 1A.
68.
Linda Lockhart , "U.S. Judge Delays Action in Suit by Phillips Backers," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 20, 1979, 3A.
69.
Kevin Horrigan and Robert L. Joiner, "Gregory Links Speculators, Phillips Closing ," August 30, 1979, 3A.
70.
Metropolitan Police Department-City of St. Louis, Intradepartment Report and Correspondence Sheet, August 31, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22.
71.
Unsigned memo attached to arrest records for seventy-two individuals, August 31, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22.
72.
Homer G. Phillips birthday observance poster, no date, Black History Project Collection, WHMC 201, file 6.
73.
Sally Bixby Defty, "Phillips Doctor Suspended: Violated Admittance Orders," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 12, 1979, 2B; David Fink, "FBI Is Looking into Alleged Threats against Hospital Committee Workers," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 9, 1978, 3A; Rolling out the Carpet for Murder and Genocide, flyer, no date, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 23; Letter from Save Homer G. Phillips and All Public Hospitals to Mayor James F. Conway, August 7, 1979, WHMC 582, file 4; Letter from John Noble to Homer G. Phillips Hospital Employees, no date, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22; Letter from Roger Waggermon to James F. Conway, August 22, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22.
74.
"UAW Opposes Phillips Hospital Move," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 14, 1979, 3A; Letter from Cleo LaTessa (CLUW) to James F. Conway, April 3, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 23; Telegram from Eugene Fowler (CORE) to James F. Conway, April 23, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 23; News Release from the Interfaith Coalition, January 16, 1980, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22.
75.
Letter from John Christmas and Paul Sanders to James F. Conway, August 9, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22; Letter from Reverend D. C. Fleary to James F. Conway, July 31, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22; Letter from Ridgeway A. Butler to James F. Conway, May 4, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 23; Letter from Lorraine Odum to James F. Conway, July 31, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 22; Letter from Mrs. B. White to James F. Conway, September 17, 1979, JFC Papers, WUSC, Series 2, Box 23.
76.
Much of the history of black working-class struggles remains undocumented due to the informal and infrapolitical nature of activities outside of recognized political institutions. As Robin Kelley writes, "those who frequented the places of rest, relaxation, recreation and restoration rarely maintained archives or recorded everyday conversations." Infrapolitics, as defined by James C. Scott, is "the circumspect struggle waged daily by subordinate groups . . . like infrared rays, beyond the visible end of the spectrum." The mix of institutionalized and protest participation has long been characteristic of black politics, stemming from the exclusion of blacks from civic and political avenues that prevailed from the collapse of Reconstruction through the Jim Crow era. See Robin D. G. Kelley, "‘We Are Not What We Seem’: Rethinking Black Working-class Opposition in the Jim Crow South," in The New African American Urban History, ed. Kenneth W. Goings and Raymond A. Mohl (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996); see also James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990), 183.
77.
Courtney Barrett , "North Siders ‘Indict’ Mayor for Closing Phillips Hospital," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 29, 1980, 16A.
78.
"Phillips Backers ‘Try’ Conway in Absentia," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 13, 1980, 11A.
79.
Roger Signor , "Expanded Services Urged by Phillips Center Staff," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 28, 1980, 1E.
80.
"Blood Is Spilled as Phillips Protest," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 20, 1980, 12D; "Phillips Backers Claim Success in Petition Drive for April Vote," St. Louis Post-Dispatch , December 31, 1980, 8A.
81.
Roy Malone, "Schoemehl Says Voters Would Reopen Phillips," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 11, 1981, 1B; "Homer G. and the Campaign," editorial, St. Louis American, February 12, 1981, 6; "The Choice for Mayor," editorial, St. Louis American, February 19, 1981, 6.
82.
LaVerne Vaughn, "Hospital Issue a Factor in Conway’s Defeat," St. Louis American, March 5, 1981, 1; Jo Mannies, "No Household Word, but a Winner," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 4, 1981, 1B; Jo Mannies, "Schoemehl Pledges to Reopen Phillips," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 4, 1981, 1A; Evarts Graham, "The City’s Budget Crunch," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 6, 1981, 1E.
83.
Jo Mannies , "State Demands on Phillips May Cause Schoemehl Shift," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 10, 1981, 1A; Jo Mannies, "Schoemehl Team Backs Phillips Plan," St. Louis Post-Dispatch , April 1, 1981, 11A.
84.
D. D. Obika, "Supporters Submit More Signatures," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 2, 1981, 7B; Kevin Horrigan, "Phillips Proposal Defeated," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 8, 1981, 1A; "Another Hospital Study?" editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 2, 1981, 2B; "Rally Marks 2nd Anniversary of Phillips Hospital Closing," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 17, 1981, 3A.
85.
Gregory Freeman , "South Side Aldermen Say Bond Issue Has Little Chance of Passage," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1982, 3A; Gregory Freeman, "Mayor, Clay Jeered at Phillips Rally," St. Louis Post-Dispatch , October 10, 1982, 8B.
86.
Gregory Freeman , "Both Measures Needed to Reopen Homer Phillips Hospital Defeated," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 3, 1982, 3D; Gregory Freeman, "Blacks Favored Hospital Plans," St. Louis Post-Dispatch , November 4, 1982, 2B.
87.
Gregory Freeman, "City to Cut Services at Phillips Center," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 5, 1983, 12E; "Cut in Doctors at Phillips Center Assailed," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 14, 1984, 3A; "Effort Is Renewed to Reopen Homer G. Phillips as Full-service Hospital," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 14, 1984; E. S. Evans, "Vote on Phillips Bill Was Final, Zych Says," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 8, 1985; Gregory Freeman, "Regional’s Dying Spurs Barely a Whimper," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 26, 1997, 12A.
88.
National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form, March 31, 1982, St. Louis Vertical File, WHMC 694, Box 16.
