Celebrating Black History Month: 12 Black American medical pioneers

Celebrating Black History Month: 12 Black American medical pioneers 
Brighton Hospice; blog from 2/24/21, still relevant today
These trailblazing clinicians, researchers, inventors, and advocates broke barriers, shattered stereotypes, and advanced medicine in this country and beyond. 

• James McCune Smith, MD (1813 – 1865): first Black American to (1) receive a medical degree, (2) own and operate a pharmacy in the U.S., (3) to be published in U.S. medical journals (as a physician)
• Rebecca Lee Crumpler, MD (1831 – 1895): first Black woman in the U.S. to receive an MD degree
• Daniel Hale Williams, MD (1856–1931): opend the nation's first Black-owned interracial hospital
• Leonidas Harris Berry, MD (1902–1995): chaired 1950's "Chicago commission that worked to make hospitals more inclusive for Black physicians and to increase facilities in underserved parts of the city"
• Charles Richard Drew, MD (1904–1950): known as the "father of blood banking," pioneering blood preservation techniques that led to thousand of lifesaving blood donations
• Jane Cooke Wright, MD (1919–2013): in 1952 at age 33, became the head of the Cancer Research Foundation; in 1971 elected by The New York Cancer Society as its first woman president
• Otis F. Boykin (1920–1982): invented control unit for the cardiac pacemaker
• Louis Wade Sullivan, MD (b. 1933): founding dean of what became the Morehouse School of Medicine—the first predominantly Black medical school opened in the United States in the 20th century
• Marilyn Hughes Gaston, MD (b. 1939): leading researcher for sickle cell disease
• Patricia Era Bath, MD (b. 1942): pioneered the discipline of community ophthalmology, which approaches vision care from the perspectives of community medicine and public health
• Alexa Irene Canady, MD (b. 1950): the first Black neurosurgeon in the United States
• Regina Marcia Benjamin, MD, MBA (b. 1956): the 18th U.S. Surgeon General

Editor's note: We thank Brighton Hospice for this post.