Beyond Civil Rights: Black Trailblazers in Medicine and Infection Prevention

During Black History Month, medical personnel work as a team.

(Adobe Stock 701731495 by Jamesart)

Black History Month, much of the time, only focuses on those individuals who played a part in the Civil Rights movement or those who invented some product. This Black History Month should focus on those who played a major role in health care and infection prevention. This information about the individuals discussed is available, along with several others, with a simple search on the internet. Although Black history is only a month, specifically about Black Americans, history would not have been successful without the help and collaboration of all races and cultures.

William Augustus Hinton, MD, (1883-1959)

Hinton was the son of freed slaves. He graduated from Harvard College in 1912 and became the Massachusetts State Department of Health lab director in 1915. He was considered an infectious disease physician before it even existed.¹ He was denied a medical internship due to his race. His specialty was diagnosing and treating syphilis. He was the developer of a diagnostic test for syphilis, the Hinton Test, which the RPR later replaced. He did not stop there; he also founded a women's school for lab technicians, which provided jobs for hundreds of women. He also was the first Black American to publish a medical textbook: Syphilis and Its Treatment.¹

Daniel Hale Williams, MD, (1856-1931)

Williams is the oldest son of 8 children. He decided to pursue his education and worked as an apprentice under Dr. Henry Palmer, who was known to be an accomplished surgeon. Dr. Daniel graduated with his MD in 1883 from Chicago Medical College. He was one of the 3 Black physicians in Chicago at that time. As time passed, he was not only treating Black patients but also white.² In 1889, he was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Health. He was denied a position as a hospital staff due to racism and discrimination, but this did not deter him from moving forward. He founded the Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses (Provident Hospital of Cook County in Chicago). This hospital was the first one in the country to have a nursing and intern program that hired Black Americans. This hospital was the first one also to have an interracial staff.²

In 1893, Williams was the first surgeon to perform open-heart surgery on a human. This was the first one in the nation at the Provident Hospital. This operation was done without X-rays, antibiotics, surgical prep work, or tools from the modern day. The patient survived and was discharged 51 days after his surgery.²

Charles Richard Drew, MD, (1904-1950)

Drew was a great athlete and received a scholarship to attend Amherst College in Massachusetts. He saved his money while in undergraduate school for medical school. In 1928, he attended medical school at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. There, he became interested in blood transfusions. In 1933, he graduated and returned to Washington, DC. He worked at Harvard University as a faculty member, instructor, and assistant surgeon at Freedmen’s Hospital. He was the first Black American to earn a medical doctorate from Columbia University.His thesis was Banked Blood: A Study on Blood Preservation.³

Drew’s research separated the plasma from blood. This was a ground-breaking project. During WWII, many casualties needed a blood transfusion. Dr. Drew was recruited as the Blood and Britain Project medical director. His mission was to create a blood bank for the British soldiers and civilians. This blood bank was based out of New York City. He recruited volunteers to donate blood, separated the plasma, stored and tested it, and then shipped it to Britain through the Red Cross. He completed his mission and was very successful.³

Although there were barriers for each of these men, they were determined and driven to succeed. With the assistance of others and their ambition, America today has continued with these practices, with improvement, of course. Patients today, all over the world, have benefited from these historical figures. Black History Month has many historical figures, and this month would be a great month to show how deep Black Americans' footprints are in American medical history.³

Reference:

1. University of Nebraska Medical Center. Honoring Black Women and Men Physician Leaders in Infectious Diseases. Division of Infectious Diseases. Published 2025. Accessed February 7, 2025. https://www.unmc.edu/intmed/divisions/id
2. Jackson State University. Who Was Dr. Daniel Hale Williams? Jackson Heart Study Graduate Training and Education Center. Published 2025. Accessed February 7, 2025. Available at: https://www.jsums.edu/jacksonheart
3. Dr. Charles Drew: A Pioneer in Blood Transfusions. Pieces of History. National Archives. Published 2025. Accessed February 7, 2025. https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov