Queen of the World Hospital (1955-1965)

Queen of the World Hospital was open for one decade in Kansas City, Missouri, and during that time, it served patients of all races. The hospital was the first non-segregated facility where physicians and nurses of all races worked together to provide care. Today, the site houses the Community of the Good Shepherd, an adult daycare that offers support to adults with disabilities.

The Queen of the World hospital was proceeded by St. Vincent’s Maternity Hospital which was established in 1909 as the first hospital in Kansas City to offer services to care for women during pregnancy and childbirth. St. Vincent’s was enlarged when St. Anthony’s Home for Infants was connected to the building in 1914. The hospital faced significant financial hardships in 1951 and in that year, Archbishop Edwin V. O'Hara appealed for St. Vincent's to become a non-segregated general hospital that would staff Black and white physicians. A study by the University of Kansas supported his request by showing that facilities allowing Black doctors to treat Black patients were urgently needed.

Records indicate that the Queen of the World Hospital officially opened as a non-segregated, general hospital on a Sunday afternoon in May 1955. with guest speakers including former President Harry S. Truman. Another noted guest was Mother Mary Columba, the Mother General of the Maryknoll sisters of St. Dominic of Maryknoll, New York. The Maryknoll was invited by Bishop O’Hara to help run the hospital administration. 

At the time, Queen of the World Hospital was the only accredited, integrated hospital in Kansas City that accepted Black physicians. Medical records for the first year of the hospital's opening indicate that there were 213 staff members at one point, 183 white physicians and 30 Black physicians. The records also report admissions were 90 percent Black patients and 10 percent white patients. The hospital administrator was Mother Mary Mercy and under her supervision, an obstetrics and gynecology residency was formed in 1956.   

For the next ten years, Queen of the World Hospital housed Black and white physicians who treated patients of all colors. The hospital also housed a nursing school that trained 90+ students since it was founded in 1956. The doors of the hospital closed on December 31, 1965, as more medical facilities became integrated and both physicians and patients had more options for care. In 1967, Good Shepherd Manor was opened by the Brothers of the Good Shepherd to serve mentally and physically handicapped young men. It was demolished in 1973 and today the site houses the Community of the Good Shepherd, an adult daycare that offers support to adults with disabilities.

Dickson, Bruce W. Jenkins, Susan S . Hospitals and Medical Staffs. Edition 52. Volume 50. Jackson County Medical Society Weekly Bulletin.

Diaz-Camacho, Vicky . How One Kansas City Hospital Treated Segregation in the ‘50s, https://flatlandkc.org/. February 20th, 2019. Accessed November 22nd, 2022. https://flatlandkc.org/curiouskc/question-everything/questions-answered/kansas-city-hospital-treated-segregation-50s/.

Denzer, Marty. How Kansas City pioneered integrated healthcare, March 21st, 2019. Accessed November 22nd, 2022. https://catholickey.org/2019/03/21/how-kansas-city-pioneered-integrated-healthcare/.