Black History Month A Medical Perspective

Exhibited February-March 1999
Exhibited February-March 2006

People

Medical Education

Hospitals

Folk Medicine

Chronology of Achievements

Selective Bibliography

Picture Credits

Dr. James McCune Smith (1811-1865) First American Negro to earn a medical degree, 1837 (University of Glasgow). Negroes were denied admission to U.S. medical schools at the time. First black to operate a pharmacy in the United States.

Dr. James Francis Shober (1853-1889) First known Negro physician with a medical degree to practice in North Carolina. He was born in Winston Salem, August 23, 1853; graduate of Lincoln University, Oxford, Pa., 1875; M.D. from Howard University School of Medicine, 1878. Married Anna Maria Taylor, 1881; Practiced medicine in Wilmington, NC until his death, January 6, 1889.

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler 1858-19?? First Negro female to earn a medical degree, 1864 (New England Female Medical College, Boston). Note: Controversial with Rebecca J. Cole, (1846-1922) who received a medical degree from Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1867. (Photo unavailable)

1999's History in the Making...

Dr. David Satcher	Dr. Ben Carson
16th Surgeon General of the United States, sworn in Feb. 13, 1998 Director of CDC, Nov. 15, 1993 until being sworn in as Surgeon General. While at CDC, he increased childhood immunization rates from 55% in 1992 to 78% in 1996. President, Meharry Medical College, 1982-1993 Elected in 1986 to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences	Director (at age 32), Pediatric Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore Separated Siamese twins joined at the cranium in 1987. A 70-member surgical team, led by Dr. Carson, operated for 22 hours. Graduate of Yale University; MD, University of Michigan School of Medicine Gifted Hands (1990) is the autobiography of Ben Carson, described as an unmotivated child from the Detroit ghetto
Dr. Paula Renee Mahone and Dr. Karen Lynn Drake	Dr. Mae C. Jemison
Drs. Paula Mahone, M.D. (left) and Karen Drake, M.D. (right) were members of a team of forty specialists involved in the delivery of the McCaughey septuplets at the Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa on November 19, 1997.	First Black Female astronaut in NASA history (August, 1992). After earning her M.D. at Cornell University in 1981, Dr. Jemison went on to research various vaccines in conjunction with the Center for Disease Control (CDC). She continued, and quite literally elevated, her medical research on the shuttle Endeavour by conducting experiments in materials processing and life sciences in space.

Farewell to One of the First

Dr. Charles DeWitt Watts (1917-2004) Dr. Watts spent more than 50 years advocating for civil and human rights and for the quality of medical care for all residents of Durham, especially the poor and underserved. He broke racial barriers when he pushed for certification of black medical students. First African American to be certified by a surgical specialty board in North Carolina. Played key role in founding Lincoln Community Health Center, a free standing clinic, which served people regardless of their ability to pay. Joined the staff of Lincoln Hospital as Chief of Surgery in 1950. Lincoln was one of the few American hospitals at the time that granted surgical privileges to African-American physicians. Completed his surgical training at Freedman's Hospital in Washington, DC under the tutelage of Dr. Charles Drew. Worked to prepare Lincoln's interns and residents for board certification and convinced Duke University Medical School to oversee Lincoln's training program so that students could get board certified. Fought along with other community leaders for the creation of one integrated public health care facility, Durham Regional Hospital, built in Durham in 1967. This led to the closing of both Watts and Lincoln hospitals. Served as Adjunct Clinical Professor of Surgery at Duke and Director of Student Health at North Carolina Central University. Served for 28 years as Vice President and Medical Director for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co., the largest African-American managed insurer in the country. Member of the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine, a fellow in the American College of Surgeons, and an active participant in the National Medical Association.

Medical Education

PRE-1865  

Medical schools were closed to Negroes in the south and to a lesser degree in the north. Because of the color line in medicine, the first few Negro physicians received their medical degrees abroad. A few older medical schools in the east admitted some Negroes; namely, Harvard, Yale, and Pennsylvania. In the Midwest, Indiana, Northwestern, and Michigan accepted some Negro medical students.

1847

First Negro medical student graduated from a northern medical school -- David J. Peck (Rush Medical School, Chicago).

1849

Bowdoin Medical School in Maine awarded medical degrees to John V. De Grasse and Thomas J. White.

1858

Berkshire Medical School in Massachusetts awarded two medical degrees to Negroes.

1860

By 1860, at least nine northern medical schools admitted Negroes: Bowdoin in Maine, the Medical School of the University of New York, Caselton Medical School in Vermont, Berkshire Medical School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Rush Medical School in Chicago, the Eclectic Medical School of Philadelphia, the Homeopathic College of Cleveland, the American Medical College, and the Medical School of Harvard University.

POST-1865  

Seven medical schools for blacks were established between 1868 and 1904. In 1895, there were 385 Negro doctors, only 7 per cent from white medical schools. In 1905, there were 1,465 Negro doctors, only 14.5 per cent from white medical schools. Almost 2,400 physicians were graduated from Howard and Meharry medical schools from 1890 to the end of WWI.

Medical Schools For Blacks Established 1868 To 1904

Howard University Medical School, established 1868-   Washington, DC

Meharry Medical College, established 1876-   Nashville, TN

Leonard Medical School (Shaw University), 1882-1914   Raleigh, NC

New Orleans University Medical College, 1887-1911   New Orleans, LA

(Renamed Flint Medical College)

Chattanooga National Medical College, established 1902-1908   Chattanooga, TN

Knoxville College Medical Department, 1895-1900   Knoxville, TN

(Became Knoxville Medical College in 1900 and closed in 1910)

University of West Tennessee College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1904-1923   Memphis, TN

By 1923, only Howard University Medical School and Meharry Medical School remained.

The Flexner Report on Medical Education (published 1910)

Referred to as the Flexner Report on Medical Education, Abraham Flexner's Medical Education in the United States and Canada: A Report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (1910), was the catalyst for the closings of many Negro medical schools. Although Negro physicians and nurses fought to overcome the veritable revolution in medicine, new research centers, modern equipment, diagnostic inventions, therapeutic discoveries, and a proliferation of medical literature were awesome hurdles to overcome. The Report consisted of high professional requirements that sounded the end of many Negro medical schools. By 1914, four of six schools had disappeared. The largest one, Leonard Medical School, closed in 1915. It was followed eight years later by the Medical Department of the University of West Tennessee, leaving only Howard and Meharry.

Howard University Medical School (est. 1868) Established for the purpose of educating Negro doctors, Howard opened in 1868 to both Negro and White students, including women. Its first faculty consisted of four Whites and one Negro, Dr. Alexander T. Augusta. Although Dr Augusta was a physician, had been in charge of Toronto City Hospital, and was the first Negro placed in charge of Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, DC, he was only permitted to be a "demonstrator of anatomy." Howard University School of Medicine became one of the few leading medical schools dedicated to the training of Negro physicians.

Meharry Medical College (est. 1876) Meharry Medical College opened in 1876 in Nashville, Tennessee with less than a dozen students, mostly from the south. It was originally part of Central Tennessee College. Eventually five White men, the Meharry brothers, who had been befriended earlier in their lives by some Negroes, furnished the resources for a four-story building. From 1877 to 1890, Meharry graduated 102 students.

Leonard Medical School (Shaw University) (est. 1882) Leonard Medical School of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina was established in 1882 in order to supplement the work of Howard and Meharry. Of the half-dozen medical schools established between 1882 and 1888, Leonard was the most successful. The school was supported by the Baptist Mission Society for Negroes. The state donated the site for the medical building, a hospital, dispensary and dormitory. Its first graduating class had six students. Leonard's faculty consisted of leading "white" physicians of Raleigh. The school closed in 1915, because it was unable to meet the rising medical standards set forth in the Flexner Report on Medical Education, published in 1910.

Medical Societies

American Medical Association (AMA)
Established as a permanent national medical society, Philadelphia, May 5, 1847.

Medical Society of the District Of Columbia
Organized in 1817 and chartered in 1819. The doors stayed closed to Negroes.

National Medical Society of the District Of Columbia
Predominantly Negro professional body established 1870 as a result of discrimination. Many Negro physicians refused to join this "mixed" society.

Medico-Chirurgical Society
The first Negro medical society. Founded 1884 and chartered more than ten years later in 1895, when it become apparent that discrimination in medicine would not end.

North Carolina Medical Society
Predominantly White organization chartered in 1849. As a concession to integration, the Society allowed black physicians "scientific" but not "social" membership in 1961.

Old North State Medical Society
North Carolina's Negro medical society. Chartered in 1887 under the name North Carolina Medical Pharmaceutical and Dental Association. Adopted the current name in 1948.

By 1956, the medical societies of every southern state had agreed to admit blacks, with the exception of Louisiana and North Carolina.

Hospitals

The Black Hospital Movement (1865 - 1960's)

Reasons:

• A place for negro physicians to treat patients and improve skills through lectures, workshops, and training sessions
• Negroes (doctors and patients) were excluded from most hospitals
• To offset the inequities with respect to health care facilities and practices
• The lack of negro hospitals contributed to the poor health status of the colored community
• Black physicians saw black hospitals as a larger part of a general movement to improve the social standing of colored society

Solutions:

• Establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau and it's medical division
• Hospitals, dispensaries, and other health care facilities were established in the larger cities, especially in the south
• Self-help and philanthropic support
• The move from exclusion to segregation in hospital care
• The establishment of separate (but not equal) asylums, poorhouses, homes for children, institutions for the deaf and dumb, and adjuncts to city and county hospitals and infirmaries
• The emergence of the black hospital

Freedmen's Hospital (Washington, DC) Freedmen's Hospital was established 1862 in Washington, DC by the Medical Division of the Freedmen's Bureau to provide the much needed medical care to slaves, especially those freed following the aftermath of the Civil War. The hospital was located on the grounds belonging to Howard University and was the only Federally-funded health care facility for Negroes in the nation. It still exists today as Howard University Hospital, one of only three remaining traditional Black hospitals. The Freedmen's Bureau existed for only four years, but during that time a movement was started that paved the way for some ninety new Negro hospitals and other health care facilities. Each state acquired some type of health care facility around 1865 through the turn of the century. By 1900, there were about forty Negro hospitals.

Provident Hospital (Chicago, IL) Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses, the first Negro-owned and operated hospital in America, was founded in 1891 by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. Provident provided for the training of nurses and interns in Chicago. Negro patients were denied admission to White hospitals; therefore, Negro physicians could not treat their patients.

Lincoln Hospital (Durham, NC) Lincoln Hospital was founded by Dr. Aaron McDuffie Moore (1863-1923) in 1901 when he convinced Washington Duke that a hospital would be a more valuable investment than Duke's idea of building a monument on the Trinity campus to honor Negroes who had fought for the confederacy. Dr. Moore, who received his medical degree from Leonard Medical College (Shaw University), was Durham's only Negro doctor during this time.

Health, Hospitals and the Negro (The Modern Hospital, Eugene H. Bradley, August, 1945)
In 1944, there were 124 Negro hospitals in the United States catering exclusively to colored patients. Of these 124 hospitals, 23 were fully approved by the American College of Surgeons and three were provisionally approved. These institutions were located in 23 states and the District of Columbia.

Today's Remaining Traditional Black Hospitals (Source: 1996 AHA Guide to the Health Care Field)

Howard University Hospital	Washington, DC	Founded: 1862
Riverside General Hospital	Houston, TX	Founded: 1925
Norfolk Community Hospital	Norfolk, VA	Founded: 1915	Closed in 1998

Health Insurance

North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, Dr. Clyde Henry Donnell, and the Health Education of Blacks (North Carolina Medical Journal, Edward C. Halperin, November, 1995)

The first North American insurance enterprise for the care of the sick and poor of the black community was, as far as is known, founded in Philadelphia by free blacks in 1787. The preamble of the "Free African Society" set out the principles of the society and its insurance practices. While white insurance companies actively competed for black clients during the mid-to-late 19th century, they chose to reduce the size of the policies they wrote for them and significantly increased their premiums.

This fueled the growth of black-owned insurance companies including, starting in October 1898, the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in Durham, which ultimately became and remains the largest black-owned insurance company in the U.S. The moving forces behind N.C. Mutual were Dr. Aaron McDuffie Moore, physician (right), John Merrick, barber and local businessman (left), and C.C. Spaulding, salesman and office manager (center). Dr. Clyde Henry Donnell became its medical director following Dr. Moore's death in 1923.

Folk Medicine

The MEDICAL FOLKLORE of Black Americans contains elements from European and African beliefs, blended with religious elements associated with Christianity and African voodoo. Folk medicine consists of traditional healing concepts and methods used in past cultures by people deemed to have the healing power. Often based on religious beliefs, these practices are used to cure diseases and promote emotional and physical well being. The practice of folk medicine is usually handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. In general, this system was used because traditional medicine failed to support blacks and poor whites.

SPANISH MOSS (Also referred to as Crape-moss and Old man's beard)

• When boiled, the concoction is used to bathe swellings and also relieve pains associated with rheumatism
• Boiled (when green) - drink the "tea" for easy delivery at childbirth
• Increases the flow of mother's milk
• Assists in promoting the delivery of the "afterbirth"
• Taken twice daily to "clean out" after giving birth
• When green, can be put in shoes to lower blood pressure
• When crushed, apply to hemorrhoids
• When tied around the neck, it relieves sprained neck

VITAMIN E OIL

• Apply twice a day for herpes to encourage the healing process
• Avoid eating peanuts during this time since they work against the natural healing in the body

CAYENNE PEPPER

• Mix some cayenne pepper with aloe juice and rub over sore muscles or arthritic joints
• Also good for bee stings

ALOE VERA

• Aids the healing of burns and sores
• Can also be taken internally for stomach disorders

BAKING SODA

• For acid stomach, make a drink of ½ teaspoon baking soda and a few drops of lemon juice in ½ cup warm water

LEECHES

• Many rheumatism specifics are found in Negro "leechcraft"
• Leeches are used in many modern orthopedic facilities today to keep the circulation in injured limbs and digits from gumming up during the healing process

BLACK DOG

• Grease stewed from a black dog is a helpful cure for rheumatism, though some say it should be put on in the dark of the moon to be most effective

RATTLESNAKE SKIN

• A snake skin, especially the skin of a rattlesnake, dried and tied around the wrist or leg is good for rheumatism
• Worn around the waist, it will prolong life
• The flexibility of the snake may have been the quality which first suggested its use to cure stiffness

BUZZARD FEATHERS

• For rheumatism, asthma, and "jerking fits" (epilepsy), two wing feathers of a buzzard are effective if burned under the nose and the smoke inhaled

SILVER DIME

• A coin, especially a (silver) dime, worn about the neck or ankle will surely stop rheumatism

GARLIC

• Used to regulate blood pressure and relieve cramps
• Crush one clove of garlic in a glass of hot milk and drink quickly

EELSKIN

• Tie the hair up with eelskin to make it grow
• Wear it around the head to cure headache
• If worn about the wrist, it will relieve pain there
• Rubbing the part of an aching back with an eelskin is an effective relief

WOODLICE

• Sew "live woodlice" into a pouch and hang around baby's neck to relieve pain and fever associated with "teething"
• When the woodlice die, the teeth come through
• Currently used in the rural south
• The "woodlouse" is the Porcellio scaber
• Not to be confused with white ants or termites

OTHER FOLK BELIEFS OF THE SOUTHERN NEGRO
(From: Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro, 1926)

Drinking
To break your husband of drinking, skin a live eel, put the skin in some liquor and give it to him. He will never drink again.

Chicken-pox
Go into the chicken house and let the chickens fly over you, or simply push the patient backward into the henhouse.

Chills and Fever
Cut a notch in a piece of wood for every chill you have had, blow on it, and throw it into a running stream where you never expect to pass again. Go home without looking back, and you will have no more chills.

Typhoid
Typhoid fever may be cured by taking a bath in steeped peach leaves, while a young black chicken is split open and applied bloody and hot to the chest.

Backache
Let a child who has never seen his father or the seventh daughter of anyone walk across your back.

Toothache
Pick an aching tooth with a splinter (from the north side of a pine tree that has been struck by lightning) and throw the sliver into running water.

Hiccoughs
May be cured by holding your breath and taking nine swallows of water. Nine grains of pepper for nine mornings or nine shots held in the mouth are equally effective.

Sore Throat
Tie the sock that you have worn all day around your throat with the sole of the sock turned towards your skin. Some believe that salt or warm ashes should be put into the stocking and some insist upon using a dark stocking.

Earache
Take the head off a wood beetle and drop the one drop of blood that comes out into the aching ear. For similar results, get some hair from a young girl and place it in your ear.