Celebrating 11 Black Pioneers in American Medical History

The healthcare industry has benefited greatly from many contributions from Black researchers, physicians, nurses, and other professionals. To honor just a few of those contributions, GetMed wanted to kick off Black History Month by commemorating the pioneers who broke barriers, developed innovative medical tests and treatments, improved access to high-quality care, and paved the way for the next generation in America’s medical community.

James McCune Smith (1813–1865)

James McCune Smith is a man of many firsts. Although no U.S. institutions of higher learning would admit him, he attended the abolitionist University of Glasgow, becoming the first African American to earn an MD at the age of 24. He was also the first Black individual to own and operate a pharmacy in the United States. He served as the medical director for the Colored Orphan Asylum for 20 years and was the first Black physician to be published in U.S. medical journals.

Smith used his writing talents to dispute racist misconceptions about physiology and intelligence. Most notably, he debunked such phrenology theories in Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831–1895)

Previously credited to Rebecca Cole, Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first African American woman in the US to earn an MD in 1864 after years as a nurse. Crumpler was also the institution’s only Black graduate. After the Civil War, Crumpler worked with other black doctors in Richmond, Virginia, caring for formerly enslaved people in the Freedmen’s Bureau despite facing harassment and extreme racism.

Unfortunately, there are no known photos of Crumpler. However, her book of medical advice for women and children, entitled Book of Medical Discourses, was published in 1883, cementing her place in history.

Daniel Hale Williams III (1856–1931)

After apprenticing with a surgeon, Daniel Hale Williams earned a medical degree and started working as a surgeon in Chicago in 1884. Because hospitals at the time barred Black doctors from working on staff, Williams opened Provident Hospital, the nation’s first Black-owned interracial hospital. The hospital offered training to Black interns and established America’s first school for Black nurses.

On July 10, 1893, Williams successfully repaired the pericardium (the sac surrounding the heart) of a man who had been stabbed in a knife fight. This operation is the first documented successful open-heart surgery on a human, and Williams is regarded as the first African American cardiologist. He later co-founded the National Medical Association and became the first Black physician admitted to the American College of Surgeons.

Solomon Carter Fuller (1872–1953)

Solomon Carter Fuller is known as the first African American psychiatrist. In 1904, he began pioneering work with the psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in Germany, studying the traits of dementia. Dr. Fuller was the first to translate much of Alzheimer’s work into English.

When he returned to the United States, Fuller continued research on Alzheimer’s disease, publishing the first comprehensive review of Alzheimer’s cases in 1912. He also researched schizophrenia, depression, and other mental illnesses. In 1974, the Black Psychiatrists of America created the Solomon Carter Fuller Program for young black aspiring psychiatrists to complete their residency.

William Hinton (1883–1959)

William Hinton was a bacteriologist and pathologist. He developed a new serological test for syphilis known as the Hinton test. Due to its accuracy, the test was adopted nationally by the United States Public Health Service. His discovery allowed doctors to detect and treat the disease in its early stages. His research was later compiled into a textbook, Syphilis, and its Treatment, which was the first medical textbook authored by an African American.

Charles Drew (1904–1950)

Charles Richard Drew was a surgeon who pioneered blood preservation techniques, earning him the nickname “the father of blood banking.” Drew directed the Blood for Britain project, which shipped around 14,500 pints of much-needed plasma to England during World War II. Drew then led the first American Red Cross Blood Bank and created mobile blood donation stations now known as bloodmobiles. However, Drew also protested the Red Cross’ policy of segregating blood by race and ultimately resigned from the organization.

Jane Cooke Wright (1919 – 2013)

With her father, who was also a physician, Wright researched chemotherapy drugs at the Cancer Research Foundation at Harlem Hospital. These drugs led to remissions in patients with leukemia and lymphoma. In 1952, she was appointed as the head of the research foundation. She later led a comprehensive program to study stroke, heart disease, and cancer at New York Medical College and was appointed to President Lyndon B. Johnson's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke.

Marilyn Hughes Gaston (1939 – )

When she attended the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Gaston was one of only six women and the only Black woman in her class. In 1986, she published a groundbreaking study that led to the creation of a national sickle cell disease screening program for newborns and proved the effectiveness of penicillin in preventing infection from sepsis in babies with the disease. In 1990, Gaston became the first Black female physician to become director of the Bureau of Primary Health Care in the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. She was also the second Black woman to serve as assistant surgeon general and achieve the rank of rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service.

Alexa Irene Canady (1950 – )

In 1981, Canady became the first black neurosurgeon in the United States, and just a few years later, she rose to the chief of neurosurgery at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. She worked as a successful pediatric neurosurgeon for decades and was about to retire in 2001. However, she again donned her surgical scrubs to practice part-time at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, where there was a dearth of pediatric neurosurgery services.

Nancy Boyd-Franklin (1950 – )

Nancy Boyd-Franklin not only acknowledged the impact of race on mental health but also explored how it affected the dynamics of Black families in varying socioeconomic backgrounds. Her approach is intersectional and examines how specific issues uniquely impact African Americans. She created clinical systems and frameworks to address these mental health issues using her extensive work with Black patients and scholarly review of professional literature. This combination of clinical research and real-life experience proved to be a highly effective approach to mental health, which shifted the landscape of mental health treatment. She is known for developing home-based and community-based therapies servicing Black families, bringing psychology to the clients instead of waiting until clients come to the clinic. This system helps to organize and implement a treatment plan at the nuclear family, extended family, and systems levels.

Books by Franklin include:

• Black Families in Therapy (1989 and expanded in 2003 with the subtitle: Understanding the African American Experience)
• Reaching Out in Family Therapy
• Boys to Men: Raising Our African American Teenage Sons
• Therapy in the Real World
• Adolescents at Risk

Making history in modern medicine

To round out this list, we want to celebrate Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett. Corbett is an immunologist at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was part of the team that helped develop mRNA-based vaccine for COVID-19. However, she has also taken on the challenge of discussing medical mistrust in communities of color and tempering hesitancy towards the vaccine. She is also now an assistant professor at Harvard University.

GetMed celebrates diversity in healthcare

Diversity in healthcare directly benefits and improves patient care, patient outcomes, and overall perspectives on wellness. To learn more about GetMed and how to become one of our travelers, apply to our team today.