African American Firsts – Medicine
Charles Drew (1904-1950)
Charles Richard Drew was a medical researcher, surgeon, and the first African American to be appointed as a medical examiner...
Louise Celia “Lulu” Fleming (1862-1899)
Louise Cecelia Fleming, the first African American to graduate from the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was born January...
Ida Gray Nelson Rollins (1867-1953)
Ida Gray Nelson Rollins, the first African American female dentist, was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, on March 4, 1867. She...
Levi Watkins Jr. (1944-2015)
Dr. Levi Watkins Jr. was a cardiac surgeon who, in 1980, performed the first implantation of an automatic defibrillator into...
Georgia Infirmary (1832- )
The Georgia Infirmary was the first hospital for African Americans built in the United States. Chartered on December 24, 1832...
Lonnie Bristow (1930- )
In 1995, Lonnie Bristow, a board-certified doctor of internal medicine, became the first African American President of the American Medical...
David Jones Peck (ca. 1826-1855)
David Jones Peck was the first black man to graduate from an American medical school. He was born to John...
Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler (1831-1895)
Dr. Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler was the first African American woman doctor in the United States. She completed medical school...
James McCune Smith (1813-1865)
Although many twenty-first century readers are aware of his work only through his introduction to Frederick Douglass’s My Bondage and...
