AFRICAN-AMERICAN
PHYSICIAN TRAILBLAZERS
Honoring Our Past
Dr. Thomas C. Unthank 1866-1932
•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. J. Edward Perry 1870 – 1962
•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 WheatleyProvident Hospital in 1916
•Autobiography “Forty Cords of
Wood”
Dr. S. H. Thompson 1870-1950
 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. William J. Thompkins 1884-1944
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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
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Kansas City American
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Weekly newspaper 1928-1943
 President
 Midwest
 President
insurance company
Life Insurance Company
of the National Colored Democratic
Association
FIRST STAFF OF KANSAS CITY GENERAL
HOSPITAL NO. 2
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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
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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
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Pediatrician
Graduate of Sumner High School
Active in the community
Dr. Wallace Dooley
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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
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Family Medicine
Meharry Medical School
Lieutenant in medical corps of U.S. Army 19171919
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
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Dr. A. Porter Davis 1890-1976
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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. Clyde W. Alexander 1898 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. Stark Williams
 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
Samuel U. Rodgers 1917-1999
•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
THE DOCTORS CLINIC, KANSAS CITY,
MISSOURI
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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.
Dr. James Johnson
 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.
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.
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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.