攀登阶梯追逐梦想：荷马·G·菲利普斯医院的历史

荷马·G·菲利普斯医院的一切都来之不易。为了服务于圣路易斯快速增长的非裔美国人，这家新大医院于1937年大萧条末期开业。许多人称之为“荷马·G”的人加入了一个新兴的黑人医院组织，当时正值全国性的制度隔离和强烈的种族偏见时期。
当这家美丽的现代化医院开业时，它吸引了比美国任何其他此类项目都多的黑人居民。病人们也蜂拥到医院，护理专业的学生们也一样，他们发现那里有良好的培训、现成的就业机会，并有助于进入中产阶级。几十年来，这家医院蓬勃发展；20世纪50年代，在圣路易斯出生的四分之三的非洲裔美国人。
但20世纪60年代和70年代对所有黑人医院的需求减少了，因为在许多新整合的机构中，教师、居民和患者越来越受欢迎。不断紧缩的城市预算意味着医院的资金减少，1979年，尽管非裔美国人社区提出抗议，HGPH关闭了。几年后，这座久负盛名、空置已久的建筑再次焕发生机，成为荷马·G·菲利普斯的高级生活社区。
坎迪斯·奥康纳（Candace O’Connor）利用当代报纸文章、机构记录和几十次对前工作人员的采访，创造了荷马·G·菲利普斯医院的第一部完整历史。她还带来了新的事实和见解，以了解医院的名字命名的人的生活和神秘谋杀案（仍然是一个悬而未决的案件），他是一名开创性的黑人律师和民权活动人士，领导了在维尔社区建造急需的医疗设施的努力。
Climbing the Ladder, Chasing the Dream: The History of Homer G. Phillips Hospital
Nothing about Homer G. Phillips Hospital came easily. Built to serve St. Louis’s rapidly expanding African-American population, the grand new hospital opened its doors in 1937, toward the end of the Great Depression. “Homer G.,” as many called it, joined a burgeoning group of black hospitals amid a national period of institutional segregation and strong racial prejudice nationwide.
When the beautiful, up-to-date hospital opened, it attracted more black residents than any other such program in the United States. Patients also flocked to the hospital, as did nursing students who found there excellent training, ready employment, and a boost into the middle class. For decades, the hospital thrived; by the 1950s, three-quarters of African-American babies in St. Louis were born at Homer G.
But the 1960s and 1970s brought less need for all-black hospitals, as faculty, residents, and patients were increasingly welcome in the many newly integrated institutions. Ever-tightening city budgets meant less money for the hospital, and in 1979, despite protests from the African-American community, HGPH closed. Years later, the venerated, long-vacant building came to life again as the Homer G. Phillips Senior Living Community.
Candace O’Connor draws upon contemporary newspaper articles, institutional records, and dozens of interviews with former staff members to create the first, full history of the Homer G. Phillips Hospital. She also brings new facts and insights into the life and mysterious murder (still an unsolved case) of the hospital’s namesake, a pioneering Black attorney and civil rights activist who led the effort to build the sorely needed medical facility in the Ville neighborhood.

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