African-Americans in Medicine Some facts that you probably don‘t know about African Americans contributions to medicine. Medicine 1. Dr. Louis (or Lucas) Santomee was the first university-trained black physician, who after completing studies in Holland, practiced medicine in the colony of New Amsterdam (New York). In 1667 he received a land grant for his services. 2. In 1721 Onesimus, a Massachusetts slave encouraged inoculation against smallpox by injecting the disease itself, a method of vaccination that would later become standard practice. 3. An 18th century slave named Cesar was granted his freedom and a pension by the South Carolina General Assembly for his discovery of a cure for rattlesnake bites. 4. Dr. James Derham was one of the most renowned black doctors of the 18th century. This former slave practiced in New Orleans and earned nearly three thousand dollars a year; a very high annual income for the time. 5. Wilcie Elfe was the earliest known black pharmacist, whose prescription book dates from 1853. 6. Dr. James McCune Smith (1811-1865) was a successful doctor, whose practice included both blacks and whites, he used scientific reasoning to counter racist notions that blacks where mentally inferior to whites. 7. Dr. Rebecca Lee-Crumpler was the first black woman to be educated as a doctor in the United States. 8. Robert Tanner Freeman was the first African American to receive a dental degree in the United States. 9. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931) performed the first surgery on the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart in 1893, and was the only black charter member of the American College of Surgeons. 10. For 50 years Dr. Justina Ford (1871-1952) was Colorado's only black physician, delivering nearly 7,000 babies, and making all of her house calls by streetcar or taxicab. 11. The first African American to practice psychiatry was Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller (1872-1953) 12. The African American podiatrist who invented the "Tarsal Arch Support" in 1929 was Dr. John Richard Hillery (1874-1940) 13. Between 1876-1976 nearly half of the practicing African American doctors in the United States graduated from Meharry Medical College. 14. Dr. William A Hinton (1883-1959) developed a test for the detection of syphilis that bears his name. 15. Dr. Louis T. Wright (1891-1952) did extensive research into the use of antibiotic drugs and was the first black doctor on the staff of Harlem Hospital. 16. Theodore K. Lawless (1892-1971) was an innovator of new dermatological techniques and did groundbreaking work in the treatment of leprosy. 17. Dr. Charles R. Drew (1904-1950) was the black physician who did pioneering research in blood preservation and helped to establish the blood banks that saved countless lives during World War II. 18. Dr. Myra Adele Logan (1908-1977) - She was the first black woman doctor to lead a team in open-heart surgery. 19. Eleanor Franklin - She was the first woman, black or white, to head a university medical department. 20. He developed techniques that gave doctors the ability to determine when the rejection of a transplanted organ begins, thus allowing them to appropriately administer anti- rejection drugs. Name this African American kidney specialist. A: Samuel Lee Kountz, Jr. (1930-1981)

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