12 Pioneers of Black American Health and Wellness

12 Pioneers of Black American Health and Wellness

February is Black History Month in the United States, a month in which Black American history is honored. It is also a month dedicated to raising awareness of the deeply unequal treatment of Black communities in the United States, as well as the incredible contributions that Black individuals and communities have made to the well-being of all people, despite the disadvantages that continue to exist today.

This article identifies twelve of the many Black Americans throughout history who have had and continue to have a profound impact on the health and well-being of people in the United States and around the world.

12 Black American Pioneers Who Changed the Course of Global Health

Dr. James McCune Smith (1813–1865)

Dr. James McCune Smith was the first black American to receive a medical degree. The fragments of schoolwork that survive from his studies at the African Free School in New York showed that he was a brilliant and applied student from the start defended the virtues of education.

After completing secondary school, James McCune Smith wanted to study medicine. Medical schools in the United States did not allow black students to be enrolled, but he did not allow this to stop him from pursuing his professional goals. He entered Glasgow University in Scotland and earned three academic degrees: a high school diploma, a master's degree and a doctorate in medicine.

Although his home country did not allow him to study medicine, he returned to New York in 1837 to apply his knowledge. He was a well-known abolitionist and worked with Frederick Douglass to promote the National Council of Colored People during the National Colored Convention in Rochester, New York, in 1855, an organization that was instrumental in promoting black rights.

He published numerous scholarly and abolitionist writings, including articles debunking racial theories, such as Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia and others that discredited phrenology, and a critique of race -biased 1840 US Census.

In addition to practicing medicine, according to the historian Thomas M Morgan “Smith was instrumental in making the overthrow of slavery credible and successful.”

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831–1895)

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler was that first black American doctor in the United States. She was born in Delaware but was raised in Pennsylvania by her aunt, who used the knowledge of her ancestors to care for the sick.

Rebecca attended West-Newton English and Classical School, a prestigious private school in Massachusetts. Shortly after graduating, she moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, where she worked professionally as a nurse from 1852 to 1860. She had a passion for caring for the sick and bravely applied to the New England Female Medical College in 1860, just ten years after it was founded. She was accepted, and Rebecca had to resist two strong beliefs that prevailed during this time: First, women lacked the physical strength and emotional toughness to practice medicine. Second, blacks were intellectually inferior.

In 1864, Dr. Crumpler was the first and only black graduate of the New England Female Medical College since the college closed its doors in 1873. Furthermore, Dr. Crumpler was one of only 300 female physicians registered in 1860 and the only black woman physician in the United States for years to come.

After the Civil War ended in 1865, Dr. Crumpler served as a physician under General Orlando Brown, deputy commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau, where she overcame the blatant racism and sexism of her colleagues to treat the illnesses of over 30,000 formerly enslaved people, most of whom were women and children.

In 1883, near the end of her medical career, Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler A book of medical discourses There she shared knowledge and evidence to treat, prevent and cure a range of diseases in infants, children and women. The text that was the first medical text written by a black author, was used by Doctors of all races for the coming years.

Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845–1926)

Mary Eliza Mahoney is the first black woman completed the training of their nurses in the United States. Although other black women in the United States worked as nurses and were healers by vocation, including Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, before completing her medical training, Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first black woman to receive her license to work as a nurse after completing training in the nursing school of the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1879.

Mary Eliza Mahoney was born in the neighborhood of Dorchester from Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents, who had moved to Boston from North Carolina, were formerly enslaved and had instilled in her a sense of the importance of racial equality. Mary knew she wanted to be a nurse as a teenager, so she began working at the New England Hospital for Women and Children before she had the opportunity to pursue formal nursing training. During her time at New England Hospital, she worked in a variety of roles, including janitor, cook, and eventually nurse's assistant.

In 1878, when she was thirty-three years old, Mahoney applied and was accepted into the intensive program at the professional graduate school for nurses. Of the 42 women who participated in the program that year, only four women completed it, including Mary Eliza Mahoney. In 1879, she became the first black American woman to earn a nursing license. Shortly thereafter, Mahoney became one of the first black members of the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada and the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses.

Mahoney was inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame in 1976 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.

In addition to being a pioneer in nursing, she was also a major supporter of women's suffrage. Mahoney was one of the first women to register to vote in Boston following the ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920.

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1856–1931)

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams was a physician who founded Provident Hospital, the first hospital with an interracial staff. He was one of the first doctors in history to perform open heart surgery.

Daniel Hale Williams III was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, to Sarah Price Williams and Daniel Hale Williams II. His father, who had owned a barbershop and worked in the Equal Rights League, died when Daniel was ten. After completing an apprenticeship as a shoemaker and starting hairdressing, he decided to continue his education. At an early age he became an apprentice to the surgeon Dr. Henry Palmer and completed further training at Chicago Medical College.

After graduating, he opened one private clinical practice, There he adopted the latest sterilization applications developed by Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister. At the time, black doctors were denied staff positions in hospitals, leading him to found the Provident Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1891, the first hospital with a racially integrated nursing and intern program.

In 1893 a man with a severe Stab wound to his chest was taken to Provident Hospital. Dr. Williams successfully stitched up the damaged portion of the man's heart without blood transfusions or modern surgical procedures. He was one of the first surgeons to perform open heart surgery, and the man he performed the operation on lived for many years after the operation.

In 1894, Williams was appointed chief physician at Freedman's Hospital, which was founded to care for formerly enslaved black Americans. He is credited with revitalizing and renewing the facilities as well as expanding and diversifying hospital services. In 1895 he was a co-founder of the National Medical Association, aimed at black physicians. For nearly two decades, he continued his practice as a skilled surgeon and administrator in many hospitals and taught physicians at several institutions, where he advocated for the presence of black professionals in medicine.

Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller (1872–1953)

Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller is the first black American psychiatrist and a pioneer in the understanding and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, having studied directly with Alois Alzheimer himself.

Solomon Carter Fuller was originally from Liberia and immigrated to the United States at the age of 17. His parents, Solomon C and Anna Ursilla Fuller, were Liberian-Americans. His grandfather was a formerly enslaved person who bought his and his wife's freedom and helped establish a settlement of formerly enslaved black Americans in Liberia.

Carter had one great interest in medicine. After arriving in the United States, he attended Livingstone College in North Carolina, later Long Island College Medical School, and completed his medical degree at Boston University School of Medicine in 1897. Like other black professionals in the medical field, Carter faced discrimination. Underpayment and underemployment and frequently performing tasks that other physicians considered unimportant or undesirable. While performing autopsies that other doctors were unwilling to perform, he made several medical discoveries that contributed to the medical community's understanding of pathology.

To advance his career, he completed postgraduate studies at the University of Munich in Germany. He researched pathology and neuropathology, and while he was there he was selected by Alois Alzheimer to do research at the university Royal Psychiatric Hospital at the University of Munich. He became an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of syphilis and used his knowledge to train doctors. He was also an advocate for black war veterans who passed through his care.

After his return to the USA he continued his Research on Alzheimer's disease In addition to teaching in the Boston area. His work helped the English-speaking medical community understand the condition and early treatment. Dr. Carter published the first-ever comprehensive review of Alzheimer's disease and at the same time reports the ninth case ever diagnosed.

Dr. Ruth Ella Moore (1903–1994)

Dr. Ruth Ella Moore is the first black person to receive a doctorate in the natural sciences and made important contributions to the understanding of infectious diseases. The Columbus, Ohio native was born into a successful artist, entrepreneur and seamstress. Moore's mother supported her education, and Ruth earned her Bachelor of Science degree in 1926 and her Master of Science degree in 1927 Ohio State University. She soon returned to her alma mater to receive a doctorate in bacteriology in 1933, becoming the first black American to do so.

Her doctoral research focused on understanding tuberculosis, which at the time posed a significant health risk as the second leading cause of death in the United States. Their work was monumental in helping to find a cure for the disease a decade later.

After graduating she was hired by another black scholar and scientist Dr. Hildrus Poindexter to help rebuild the clinical department at Howard University. She was a beloved professor and soon became head of the Department of Bacteriology until 1960. Dr. Moore was the first woman to head a department at Howard University. Dr. Moore's contributions and teachings helped pave the way for other Black scientists to enter the field while eradicating infectious diseases.

Dr. Not only did Moore become a renowned scholar, but he also learned that Art of sewing from her mother and made beautiful garments for all occasions. Many of her clothing items are on display in clothing museums across the United States.

Dr. Jane Cooke Wright (1919–2013)

Dr. Jane Cooke Wright was the first black American woman to be appointed dean of a medical school. She contributed significant insights to the understanding of cancer and created pioneering programs in the study of chronic diseases.

Jane Cooke Wright was born in New York City 1919 to Corrine and Louis Tompkins Wright. Louis Tompkins Wright was one of the first black graduates of Harvard Medical School, the first black doctor hired at a municipal hospital in New York City, and the founder of the Cancer Research Center at Harlem Hospital.

Dr. Jane Cooke Wright graduated with honors from New York Medical College in 1945 and practiced at Bellevue Hospital, where she...

... more about that in the next part.
Inspired by Afpafitness