Histories: African-American physicians, with
a few notes on African Americans in Hollywood films |
| 1822 |
James Hall graduated from the University of Maine Medical
School. Some sources state that he was the first African-American
to obtain an M.D. in the United States. |
| 1847 |
David J. Peck graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago,
and is the best documented "first" African-American M.D. |
| 1868 |
Howard University medical school founded |
| 1869 |
Rebecca Cole graduated from the Women's Medical College
of Philadelphia: the first African-American woman to obtain
an M.D. |
| 1876 |
Meharry medical school founded |
| 1895 |
National Medical Association formed |
| 1896 |
Plessy vs Fergusson: U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled
in favor of "separate but equal" accomodation of African Americans,
justifying segregation. |
| 1900s-1930s |
Black hospital movement: founding and supporting hospitals
to provide training and practice opportunities for African-American
physicians and patients |
| 1914 |
Sam Lucas was the first black actor in a Hollywood feature
film, playing Tom in Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| 1929 |
First feature-length black Hollywood films: Hallelujha and
Hearts in Dixie |
| 1931 |
Clarence Brooks plays Dr. Oliver Marchand,
with an M.D. from Howard medical school, in Arrowsmith.
|
| 1932 |
Beginning of the U.S. Public Health Service's study of untreated
syphillis in black men -- The Tuskegee Study |
| 1940 |
American Charles Robert Drew, M.D. served as director for
the first Plasma Division Blood Transfusion Association for
the British. Drew had developed a way to store blood plasma
long enough for banking to work. |
| 1941 |
Drew appointed as first director of the American Red Cross
Blood Bank to serve U.S. troops |
| |
Drew resigned this position when the American Red Cross
refused to allow African Americans to donate blood for military
use. |
| 1945, Jan. 20 |
Army Nurse Corps opened (by serious public pressure) to
black nurses, who had been limited to segretated services
to that point. |
| 1948 |
President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981 ending segregation
throughout the U.S. military |
| 1948-49 |
The School of Medicine at the University of Arkansas admitted
one black student. This brought the total number
of African American enrollments in historically white medical schools
in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Maryland,
District of Columbia, West Virginia and Missouri to - one. |
| 1954 |
Brown vs Board of Education - U.S. Supreme Court rules that
"separate but equal" in public school education is unconstitutional,
leading the way for school desegregation and the eventual
desegregation of other public facilities. |