"Homer Gilliam Phillips"(1880-1931)

Prominent St.Louis attorney was born in Sedalia,Missouri.He was the son of a Methodist minister,but he was orphaned in infancy and raised by an aunt.Homer interests in law led him to Washington,D.C. where he lived with renowned African American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar while attending Howard University Law School.He also briefly worked at the Justice Department.Up his return to Missouri,Homer became an active attorney and political figure in St.Louis.In 1922,he was given prominent role of securing approximately $1 million to construct a new hospital for African-Americans on the city's North side.While the bond issue to fund construction of a new facility to replace St.Louis's Barnes Hospital was approved by the voters,city officials instead attempted to force black st.Louis residents to use outdated Deaconess Hospital.Homer led the fight against the city's efforts and eventually persuaded leaders to create the new fully funded hospital as originally proposed in the 1922 bond measure,through construction was delayed for another decade.On June 18,1931,fifty-one year old Homer left his home at 7:45 to take a streetcar to his office in downtown St.Louis.He stopped to purchase a newspaper,which he read while he waiting for his streetcar to arrive.He was approached by two men.One man walked up to Homer and struck him in the face before drawing an automobile pistol and firing several shots into him.The two,who fled to an alley afterward,were arrested for the murder,but both were released due to lack of evidence.No one was ever convicted of Homer's murder and no motive for the killing was ever established.He did not live to see the hospital named in his honor,the Homer G.Philips Hospital was opened in 1937 to serve the city's black population and to enable African-American physicians to gain staff privileges.