Samuel U. Rodgers

Samuel Ulysses Rodgers (August 10, 1917 – December 19, 1999) was an American physician, educator, and public health advocate. He was a pioneer in the community health movement, including establishing the Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center (originally the Wayne Miner Neighborhood Health Center) in 1968, which became the first Federally Qualified Health Center in Missouri and a national model for providing comprehensive care to impoverished populations.

He graduated Howard University College of Medicine, and served as a Major in the United States Army Medical Corps during World War II, where he earned a Combat Medical Badge. His experience in desegregated military facilities contrasted sharply with the segregated medical system in Kansas City, Missouri, leading him to organize the 1947 resident physicians' strike at General Hospital No. 2 to demand equitable training and resources. He was the fifth African American physician in the United States to become board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and served on the faculty of the University of Kansas School of Medicine.