Homer G. Phillips
Painting by Vernon Smith
Born
Homer Gilliam Phillips

April 1, 1880
DiedJune 18, 1931
OccupationAttorney
Known for
  • Republican political figure
  • Civil rights advocate

Homer Gilliam Phillips (April 1, 1880–June 18, 1931)[1] was an American lawyer from Sedalia, Missouri who moved to St. Louis. An African-American Republican political figure, he was a prominent advocate for civil rights.[2] He was a co-founder of Citizen's Liberty League, a political organization in Missouri to advance the interests of African Americans in the Republican Party. In 1928, he was the president of the St. Louis chapter of the National Bar Association.[3][4] In 1931, at 51 years old, Phillips was gunned down in St. Louis in an alleged dispute over legal fees owed to him. After his death, a hospital in St. Louis he helped organize was named in his honor, Homer G. Phillips Hospital.

Biography

Phillips was born in 1880, and raised in Sedalia by his aunt, after being orphaned in childhood.[2] His father was a Methodist minister and former slave.[2] In 1907, his 35 year old brother John, from Smithton, Missouri, died of typhoid fever.[5] He graduated from George R. Smith College in Sedalia, and in 1903 got his law degree from Howard University.[6][7] He resided in the home of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a famous Black poet, during his time at Howard.[1] In 1912, he married Ida Perle Alexander, an actress.[2] He also was responsible for securing $1 million for construction for a new hospital for African Americans on the north side of St. Louis; his namesake, Homer G. Phillips Hospital.[8][9] On February 22, 1937, more than 10,000 people turned out for the hospital's dedication.[9]

Career and advocacy

In 1908, he taught Civics at the Negro Teachers' Institute for Central Missouri in Sedalia.[10] By 1911, he had moved to St. Louis and began practicing law there.[6] In 1916, Phillips led the opposition to a segregation ordinance that was passed in St. Louis. The ordinance prevented Blacks from moving into neighborhoods where 75 per cent or more of the population was White. Phillips had filed an injunction, which was denied, to prevent the special election from happening. After the ordinance passed, Phillips stated that they had been "double crossed" by Republican leaders who did not deliver the votes needed to defeat the measure.[11] However, the local branch of the NAACP, assisted by Phillips, filed a motion requesting a temporary injunction to suspend the ordinance from taking affect.[12] That temporary injunction was granted on April 17, 1916, by US District Judge David Dyer, until the pending Supreme Court case Buchanan v. Warley could be decided.[12] When the decision came down in Buchanan, the ordinance was invalidated and made illegal.[13]

Plaque on sidewalk in St. Louis honoring Phillips
Plaque honoring Phillips in St. Louis

In 1926, he unsuccessfully ran against Leonidas C. Dyer, in the Republican primary for Congress.[14][6] In 1928, he was in charge of the local National Republican Headquarters for the Western region, and was in charge of Herbert Hoover's headquarters in Kansas City during the 1928 Republican National Convention.[6] He was a director of the Peoples Finance Corporation, and a member of the Masonic and Omega Psi Phi fraternities.[6] Phillips also was an advocate for equal accommodations for Blacks on railroad trains, recognition of Blacks in appointments to West Point Academy, and improving the conditions for Black farmers.[15]

Notable cases

In the aftermath of the 1917 East St. Louis, Illinois riots, Phillips was retained to help defend Black soldiers who were court-martialed, and several other Black defendants who were charged for rioting.[16][1] He represented Fisk University in an estate case, where a Mr. McClelland had left $100,000 to the university. When the man's will could not be found to establish the donation, Phillips was successful in introducing a 'carbon copy' of the man's will, and had it admitted to probate court in favor of the university.[6] In 1925, he represented Liberty Life Insurance who was contesting paying out a $3,000 life insurance policy on a death. Phillips revealed the alleged death as a scam, when he successfully petitioned the court to have the coffin exhumed, which revealed it was filled with 200 pounds of cement.[17][2] In 1927, Phillips was on record as an attorney in the divorce proceedings between Annie Turnbo Malone and her husband. Malone is considered to be one of the first Black women to become a millionaire.[18]

Murder

On June 18, 1931, Phillips left his house, and was waiting to take a street car when he was approached by two young men. One of the men began speaking to him and hit him, while the other drew a gun and shot at him, striking him three times. Witnesses identified the two men as 19 year old George McFarland, and 18 year old Augusta Brooks. They were both arrested, and charged with Phillips' murder. Although the motive was unclear, the police suspected there was a dispute over the settlement of an estate worth $3000, in which McFarland's mother was an heir.[19] McFarland went to trial in February 1932, and Brooks went to trial in August 1932.

On February 18, 1932, George McFarland was found not guilty of the murder of Phillips. McFarland claimed he had an alibi, testifying he was at a grocery store at the time of the murder. Three other witnesses collobrated his testimony. The police testified they arrested McFarland as he ran out of his house, and in his statement to them, he never mentioned going to the store the morning of the murder.[20]

Augusta Brooks was acquitted on August 10, 1932, after the jury was out two and a half hours. There was only one witness presented by the prosecution that placed Brooks at the scene. The state's primary witness who witnessed the acutal shooting could not be found to testify. Another witness did not testify because he was reportedly at home suffering from a nervous breakdown.[21] Because of the acquittals, the case remains unsolved.[2]

Several thousand people attended his funeral service at Saint Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church, his burial was in St. Peter's Cemetery.[22][23] At the time of his death, his estate was valued at $4494, which was left to his wife.[24]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ware, Leland (1999). "Dictionary of Missouri Biography". Homer G. Phillips (1880–1931). Missouri Encyclopedia. p. 1.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 O'Neil, Tim (June 20, 2010). "A look back: Homer G. Phillips was a leader among blacks in St. Louis". The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Archived from the original on March 24, 2021.
  3. ↑ Finkelman, Paul (July 27, 2009). Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: J-N. Oxford University Press. p. 345. ISBN 978-0-19-516779-5.
  4. ↑ "Prominent Men Visit The City". The Indianapolis Recorder. Vol. 31, no. 40. July 14, 1928. Homer G. Simpson, president of the National Bar Association of St. Louis
  5. ↑ "Burial of John Phillips". Sedalia Democrat-Sentinel. August 14, 1907. p. 2.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Accosted On Corner, Prominent St. Louis Attorney Is Killed By Unknown Gunmen". The Black Dispatch. Vol. 16, no. 30. St. Louis. Associated Negro Press. June 25, 1931. pp. 1–2.
  7. ↑ Smith Jr, J. Clay (1999). Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 333. ISBN 978-0-8122-1685-1.
  8. ↑ Wartts, Adrienne (October 25, 2008). "Phillips, Homer G. (1880-1931) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". BlackPast.org.
  9. 1 2 Berg, Daniel R. (2003). "A History of Health Care for the Indigent in St. Louis: 1904-2001". Saint Louis University Law Journal. 48 (1): 191–224.
  10. ↑ "Negro Teachers' Institute for Central Missouri". Sedalia Weekly Conservator. Vol. 6, no. 4. June 15, 1908. p. 1.
  11. ↑ "Segregation Won". The Sedalia Democrat. Vol. 10, no. 52. March 1, 1916. p. 1.
  12. 1 2 "Louisville Law Is Invalid Says Supreme Court". The St. Louis Argus. Vol. 6, no. 30. November 9, 1917. p. 1. I shall grant here a temporary injunction restraining the enforcement of these ordinances, and I only say temporary for the reason that it has been stated that there is a case involving a like question now before the Supreme Court of the United States. I will make this injunction temporary; otherwise but for the pendency of that case I would make it permanent.
  13. ↑ Cooperman, Jeannette (October 17, 2014). "The story of segregation in St. Louis". St. Louis Magazine.
  14. ↑ McAdams, Clark (May 29, 1926). "When For Instance?". The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Vol. 78, no. 264. p. 12.
  15. ↑ "Homer G. Phillips, Negro Lawyer, Slain". The St. Louis Star. Vol. 45, no. 221. June 18, 1931.
  16. ↑ Meier, August; Rudwick, Elliott (1976). "Attorneys Black and White: A Case Study of Race Relations within the NAACP". The Journal of American History. 62 (4): 924. doi:10.2307/1903844. ISSN 0021-8723. JSTOR 1903844.
  17. ↑ "Cement In Coffin Buried In Alleged Insurance Fraud". The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Vol. 78, no. 115. December 31, 1925. p. 1.
  18. ↑ Foussianes, Chloe (March 22, 2020). "Did Self-Made Base Madam C.J. Walker's Rival, Addie Monroe, on Annie Malone?". Town & Country.
  19. ↑ "Phillip's Slayers Identified". The Pittsburg Courier. June 27, 1931. p. 7.
  20. ↑ "Acquitted In Killing Of Negro Attorney". The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Vol. 84, no. 165. February 18, 1932. p. 7A.
  21. ↑ "Jury Frees Accused In Lawyer's Murder". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. August 11, 1932. p. 1.
  22. ↑ "Negro Layer Killed Had Dispute Over Fee". The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Vol. 83, no. 287. June 20, 1931. p. 3A.
  23. ↑ "Throngs Attend Funeral Of Slain Negro Attorney". The St. Louis Star. June 23, 1931. p. 10.
  24. ↑ "Slain St. Louis Lawyer's Estate Valued At $4494". The Afro American. Vol. 40, no. 43. CNS. July 25, 1931. p. 1.

Further reading

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