Michael M. Karl oral history transcript
- PC054-S08-B01-F18-i01
- Item
- July 24, 1990
Part of Washington University Medical Center Desegregation History Project Records
An interview of the Washington University Medical Center Desegregation History Project, conducted by Edwin W. McCleskey and associates, 1990. Approximate Length: 11 minutes.
Michael Karl discusses the ways in which hospitals were segregated in St. Louis when he first came to the city in the 1930s, and how the desegregation of Barnes Hospital came about.
Karl begins by addressing the status of segregated medical facilities in St. Louis in the early 1930s and 1940s and then discusses the desegregation of Barnes Hospital and the elimination of the segregated wards for Black patients, Wards 0300 and 0400. He remarks on the role the hospital boards played in preventing the hospital from desegregating, and the similarities and differences between the Black and white wards.
Karl also discusses the high level of medical care for Black patients at Barnes Hospital and some Black physicians who worked at Barnes.
He says he believes Barnes was integrated in 1962, however the exact date when the hospital was fully integrated is not known.