AFRICAN-AMERICAN

PHYSICIAN TRAILBLAZERS

Honoring Our Past

•1898- Graduated from Howard

Medical School

•1898- Moved to Kansas City

•General Surgery

•Politician

•1903 Flood – Cared for victims

•Co- founded Douglass Hospital

•2nd Superintendent of General

Hospital No. 2

Dr. Thomas C. Unthank 1866-1932

•Clinical Surgery

•1895-Meharry Medical School

•Lieutenant U.S. Volunteer

Infantry 1898

•1903 – Came to Kansas City

•The Perry Sanitarium 1910

•City’s 1st private Negro

hospital

•Became Wheatley-

Provident Hospital in 1916

•Autobiography “Forty Cords of

Wood”

Dr. J. Edward Perry 1870 – 1962

Clinical Surgery

Brother was physician also,

Dr. J. R. Thompson

Helped discover cures for a

plague of spinal meningitis in

1912 and a Spanish influenza

epidemic in 1918.

Headed organization of

Douglass Hospital with

attorney, I. F. Bradley, Sr.

Dr. S. H. Thompson 1870-1950

General Surgery

Howard University Medical School 1905

1st Black Superintendent of General Hospital No. 2 in

1914

1927 appointed assistant of Hygiene & Communicable

Diseases for the city

Newspaper editor

Kansas City American

Weekly newspaper 1928-1943

President insurance company

Midwest Life Insurance Company

President of the National Colored Democratic

Association

Dr. William J. Thompkins 1884-1944

FIRST STAFF OF KANSAS CITY GENERAL

HOSPITAL NO. 2

• First row. (I. to r.) Thomas A. Jones, T. C. Chapman, J. Edgar Dibble and Lon Tillman. Second row, I. to r. C. A. Murray Kane, E. J. McCampbell and A. Franklin Radford.

INTERNS MAY 1931

• First row, I. to r. Nathaniel Mathagie, Connor, Chandler, H. W. Kennedy, Theodore Borders, Fleming. Second row, I. to r. W. McKinley Thomas, Barnes, Bass, James Riley, Theodore Dulany, James Jefferies.

Dr. Lewis Bass

Pediatrician

Graduate of Sumner High School

Active in the community

Dr. Wallace Dooley

Orthopedics

Graduate of Sumner High School

Meharry Medical School

One of first African-Americans to complete

residency in Orthopedic Surgery

Taught at Meharry for 27 years

Dr. William Dyer 1890’s-1940’s

Family Medicine

Meharry Medical School

Lieutenant in medical corps of U.S. Army 1917-

1919

Santa Fe Railroad

Dr. William Blount 1900’s – 1950’s

Physician & Surgeon

1932 became 1st African-American state

representative from Wyandotte County

Dr. William A. Love 1920’s – 1960’s

Physician & Pharmacist

Original board member of Douglas State Bank

1920’s

Physician & Surgeon

Among 1st African-American pilot’s

license 1928

Meharry Medical College

1920 Davis Maternity Sanitarium

for Unwed Mothers

1st African-American physician appointed assist. Health

director in KCK 1926-32

President NMA 1953

Produced & acted in his own movie “The Lure of a

Woman” 1921

North America Aviation Inc. in Fairfax

Dr. A. Porter Davis 1890-1976

OB/GYN

Meharry Medical School 1923

Intern at General Hospital No. 2

“Delivered more babies in Wyandotte

county than any other physician”

Practiced >60 years

Dr. Clyde W. Alexander 1898-

Pediatrician

Graduated South Carolina State

University with triple major

Meharry Medical School

13th minority physician in the

country to hold board certification

Medical Director of Samuel U.

Rodgers Health Center

Part of many other organizations

Dr. Stark Williams

•OB/Gyn

•1949 The Doctors Clinic

•1962 Historical Summary of

Kansas City General Hospital

No. 2 in NMA Journal

•1968 Founded Wayne Minor

Community Health Center (CHC)

•4th CHC in nation

•1st CHC in state of Missouri

Samuel U. Rodgers 1917-1999

THE DOCTORS CLINIC, KANSAS CITY,

MISSOURI

1969- Model Cities Health Corporation (MCHC) opens. E. Frank Ellis is director.

1980- Community Mental Health Center added

1981- Accredited by (then) Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals

1984 -A HMO established and Swope Parkway Health Foundation established.

1986- Clinic renamed Swope Parkway Health Center.

1998- Merger with Douglas Community Health Center in Kansas City, Kansas

2002- The Northwest Community Health Center opens.

OB/GYN

Howard University Medical School

Internship & Residency at

General Hospital No. 2

Board of Directors for National

Kidney Foundation 1980

Aircraft Owners Pilot Assoc.,

Flying Physicians Assoc., Missouri

Pilots Assoc., Negro Airmen

Assoc., Tuskegee Airmen Inc.

Dr. James Johnson

CARL M. PETERSON, M.D., (1914-2007)

Dr. Peterson was the first black surgeon in

Kansas City to be certified in his specialty by

the American Board of Surgeons

1955- Became first black on staff of White

Kansas City Missouri Hospital (St. Mary’s)

1972- Became first black president of the

Jackson County Medical Society.

THE KANSAS CITY MEDICAL SOCIETY

1962

1st Row: C. M. Peterson, J. S. Johnson, L M. Tillman, A. J. Randolph, S. J.

Williams, John Wells, L. N. Bass, Albert Crocker, C. C. Reynolds.

2nd Row: B. P. McDonald, C. Franklin, A. Renaud, L. Haugh, G. Clark, A.

Brady, C. W. Alexander, L. Holbert, Wm. Bryan, J. Ramos, S. U. Rodgers.

3rd Row: J. White, L. W. Turner, Philip Smith, E. F. Ellis, H. Jones, Geo. Taft,

A. P. Talliferro, H. Wil­liams, C. Gilmore, Thomas Clark, Leslie Becker.