From Separate To Equal | The Creation of Truman Medical Center

Old General Hospital 2
General Hospital #2

Kansas City physicians on the front steps of the new General Hospital #2.
Under a photo of the new hospital in February 28, 1930,
The Kansas City Call wrote: "The only city hospital in the U.S.A. ministering exclusively to colored people and completely officered by a colored staff ..."
The staff included 30 physicians and six dentists.

At the turn of the twentieth century, African-American doctors, nurses and patients were excluded from most Kansas City area hospitals. The realities of segregation created the need for Black health care institutions. The film From Separate to Equal: The Creation of Truman Medical Centers tells the dramatic story of some of greater Kansas City’s African-American health care pioneers and their efforts which led to the creation of Black hospitals such as Douglass Hospital and General Hospital Number 2 and finally to the complete integration of the health care system, informing and giving rise to Truman Medical Centers.

TMC would like to thank all the participants who gave their time and provided invaluable memories to make this film possible.

Randall Jelks

Delia Young

Jimmy Johnson, PhD

Suzanne Knowles

Jesse F. Hope III

Amber Reagan-Kendrick, PhD

Gwendolyn Calderon

Anita Russell

Sr. Mary Kay Liston CSJ, D.Min.

Charles Hammer

Horace Washington

Will Matthews

Sonny Gibson

Phillip Roland

Grace Johnson

Albert P. Mauro

Dr. Herman Jones, Jr.

Octavia McDonald

Sherlene Spears

Alvin Brooks

Anita Maltbia

Dr. Herman Watson

Dr. Louis Peterson

Delbert White

Dorothy Johnson

Cleo DeGraffenreid

Dr. Charles Wheeler

Brett Ferguson, DDS

Dr. E. Grey Diamond

Dr. W. Kendall McNabney

Mamie Hughes Rodgers

Dr. Mark T. Steele

John W. Bluford

Dorothy Johnson