On Thursday, February 9 at 6:30 p.m. the Richmond Heights Memorial Library will host Candace
O’Connor, author of Climbing the Ladder, Chasing the Dream: the History of Homer G. Phillips Hospital.
This event will take place in the Library’s program room. The Library is located on the 2nd floor of the
HEIGHTS Community Center at 8001 Dale Avenue.
Homer G. Phillips Hospital — founded in an era of segregated healthcare and named for the murdered
attorney who fought for its existence — became a beacon of hope and healing for the Black community and
a path to professional progress for hundreds of Black physicians and nurses.
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. 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.
The author will be on hand to discuss her work and to answer questions. Copies of Climbing the
Ladder, Chasing the Dream will be available for purchase from Subterranean Books.
This event is free and open to the public.