Physicians and Medicine

Early Black Physicians

The first African American doctor, James Derham (1757–?), was born into slavery. One of his owners was Philadelphia physician Robert Love, who encouraged Derham to practice medicine. Derham worked as a medical assistant and apothecary, or pharmacist, until he had saved enough money to purchase his freedom. In 1783, he moved to New Orleans, where he opened a medical practice. After having met Dr. Benjamin Rush, known as the “father of American medicine,” Derham relocated his practice to Philadelphia. He was greatly respected by his fellow doctors and was widely recognized as a specialist in diseases of the throat and in the relationship between climate and disease.

James McCune Smith (1813–1865) of New York was the first African American to earn a university degree in medicine, graduating from Glasgow University in Scotland in 1837. After his graduation, Smith returned to the United States and established a medical practice in New York City. Smith also owned two drug stores, was active in the abolition movement, and was an ardent supporter of a free black press.

The first black to graduate from an American medical school was David J. Peck, who was born to free parents in Pittsburgh. Peck studied medicine, first under a local doctor and then at Rush Medical College in Chicago, from which he received his degree in 1847. Peck practiced medicine in Philadelphia from 1849 to 1851. He then became involved in a project to develop a homeland for free blacks in Central America.

The fourth African American doctor in the United States, Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831–1895), conquered more than racism to achieve her goal. As a woman, Crumpler endured gender as well as racial discrimination. Yet in 1864, she graduated from the New England Female Medical College in Boston, becoming the first African American woman to earn a medical degree.

Since the turn of the century, there have been many outstanding African American doctors. Among the best known is Charles Richard Drew (1904–1950), who was professor of surgery and chief surgeon at the Freeman's Hospital in Washington, D.C., and who is credited with inventing the concept of a blood bank. In 1939, Drew set up and then ran the blood plasma bank at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, which served as a model for that now in use by the American Red Cross.

Another well-known African American doctor, Daniel Hale Williams (1856–1931), performed the first successful heart operation in 1893. The patient, who had been stabbed in the heart, lived for fifty years after the surgery. A gifted teacher, Williams was founder of Chicago's Provident Hospital and an important force in opening the medical profession to African American nurses and physicians.

Yet another African American, Benjamin S. Carson (1951–), overcame extreme poverty and an under-privileged childhood to graduate from the University of Michigan Medical School and become, at age thirty-three, the youngest-ever chief of pediatric neu-rosurgery in the United States. Carson was thrust into [Page 638]the limelight in 1987 when he led the surgical team that separated conjoined twins joined at the back of the head.

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