Dr. S.H. Thompson Sr. and S.H. Thompson Jr.

Founder of Douglass Hospital, Dr. S.H. Thomspon Sr. ensured that there was equal access and care to all patients in his facility, hiring people who shared this value regardless of their race or ethnicity. The facility was considered the best African American public hospital in the nation. Thompson’s son also left a lasting legacy in the community, serving as Sumner High School’s principal for over 20 years.

Solomon Henry Thompson was born in West Virginia in 1870 and grew up as the older brother of his 14 other siblings. Thompson went off to college and then left West Virginia to earn a medical degree in 1892 from Howard University. After graduation, Dr. Thompson moved to Kansas City, Kansas where he settled down following the acceptance of an internship at a local Wyandotte hospital. Following his internship, Dr. Thompson opened a pharmacy in 1898 where he also operated a medical practice. The same year Thompson opened his pharmacy, he married a St. Louis school teacher and the pair had two sons and two daughters. It was in Kansas City where he met other notable African American physicians, inspiring him and T.C. Unthank to establish the Douglass Hospital. 

Dr. S.H. Thompson is most remembered for pioneering the “African American Hospital Movement” in Kansas City, Kansas. Thompson believed that health care should be available to everyone and opened his Douglass Hospital in 1899, with the help of fellow physician Unthank. Not only was this hospital open to anyone, and the first hospital available to African Americans west of the Mississippi, but it was also a teaching facility aimed at encouraging more African Americans to become doctors, including women. For more than 50 years, Dr. S.H. Thompson devoted his life to expanding access to healthcare while working at Douglass. 

In 1905, Kansas City Kansas’ AME Church partnered with Douglass Hospital, and in 1924 the growing campus moved to a new location. (It relocated again in 1937). Dr. S.H. Thompson passed away in 1950, but his legacy still lives on today. Aside from establishing a successful African American teaching hospital, he was also credited with helping to discover the cures for spinal meningitis as well as the Spanish flu. Following WWII hospitals became more integrated, which put a strain on Douglass Hospital and led to its eventual closure in 1977.

S.H. Thompson Jr., the eldest son of Dr. S.H. Thompson and his late wife, made waves of his own in the Kansas City community. Although he did not become a doctor, he carried on his father’s legacy in the field of education. After graduating from Hampton Institute in 1925, S.H. Thompson Jr. then went on to obtain a master's degree before moving back to Kansas to teach at Western University. In 1938, Thompson Jr. set out to work in various Kansas City schools until landing his dream job in 1951, where he began his 20-year term as principal of Kansas City Kansas’ Sumner High School. S.H. Thompson retired in 1972 and enjoyed time with his family until his death in 1989.

Hulston, Nancy J. . S. H. Thompson, M.D., THE PENDERGAST YEARS. Accessed June 8th 2022. https://pendergastkc.org/article/biography/s-h-thompson-md.

BIOGRAPHY OF S. H. THOMPSON (1870-1950), M.D., PHYSICIAN, The Kansas City Public Library. Accessed June 8th 2022. https://kchistory.org/document/biography-s-h-thompson-1870-1950-md-physician.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN PHYSICIAN TRAILBLAZERS, Accessed June 8th 2022. http://www.kcnma.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Trailblazers.pdf.

SOLOMON H. THOMPSON, JR., Accessed June 8th 2022. https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/kchistory%3A69106?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=d783db1170b318d6f5b3&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=1&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=2.

SOLOMON HENRY THOMPSON, M.D., 1870-1950, JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. Accessed June 8th 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2641310/pdf/jnma00716-0074.pdf.