MHHS Celebrates Black History Month Imhotep the Wise 2700 BC ‐ 2468 BC Imhotep "the Wise" was the first physician known by name and was deified as the universal god of medicine. A commoner by birth, Imhotep's intelligence and determina on enabled him to rise through the ranks to become one of Djoser's most trusted advisors, as well as the architect of the pharaoh's tomb, the Step Pyramid. Imhotep's influence lived on well a er his death. In the New Kingdom he was venerated as the patron of scribes, personifying wisdom and educa on. In the 'Turin Papyri' from this period he is also described as the son of Ptah, chief god of Memphis, in recogni on of his role as a wise councillor. During the Late Period his venera on extended to deifica on and he became a local god at Memphis where he was glorified for his skills as a physician and a healer. He is said to have extracted medicine from plants and treated diseases such as appendici s, gout and arthri s. Courtesy of BBC Dr. James McCune Smith 1813 ‐1865 Dr. James McCune Smith was one of the most broadly accomplished black intellectuals and ac vists in antebellum America. Born in New York on April 18, 1813, to a mother who pur‐
chased her own freedom and a father who may have been a freed slave or a white merchant, Smith a ended the African Free School in New York City, where at the age of eleven he was chosen to give an address to the Marquis de Lafaye e (1824). Upon gradua on from the African Free School, James McCune Smith sought but was denied admission to several Ameri can colleges. He then managed to raise money to a end the University of Glasgow in Scot land, where, a er comple ng bachelor’s and masters’ degrees, he completed a medical de gree in 1837. Thus he became, as far as can be determined, the first African American to be awarded a degree in medicine. A er comple ng a medical internship in Paris, he returned to New York City, where he opened a medical office and a pharmacy that a racted interracial clientele on West Broadway. Courtesy of BlackPast.org Mary Mahoney 1845‐1926 Mary Mahoney was born on May 7, 1845 (some sources say April 16), in Boston, Massachu‐
se s. She was admi ed to the nursing school of the New England Hospital for Women and Children, and became the first black woman to complete nurse's training in 1879. She was also one of the first black members of the American Nurses Associa on, and has been credited as one of the first women to register to vote in Boston following the ra fica on of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Mahoney was inducted into both the Nursing Hall of Fame and the Na onal Women's Hall of Fame. She died in Boston in 1926. Courtesy of Biography.com Sarah E. Goode 1850 –1905 Born into slavery in 1850, inventor and entrepreneur Sarah E. Goode went on to become the first African‐American woman to be granted a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, for her inven on of a folding cabinet bed in 1885. A er receiving her freedom at the end of the Civil War, Goode moved to Chicago and eventually became an entrepreneur. Along with her husband Archibald, a carpenter, she owned a furniture store. Many of her customers, who were mostly working‐class, lived in small apartments and didn't have much space for furni‐
ture, including beds. As a solu on to the problem, Goode invented a cabinet bed, which she described as a "folding bed," similar to what nowadays would be called a Murphy bed. When the bed was not being used, it could also serve as a roll‐top desk, complete with compart‐
ments for sta onery and other wri ng supplies. Goode received a patent for her inven on on July 14, 1885. Courtesy of Biography.com Dr. Daniel Hale Williams 1856 ‐ 1931 The son of a barber, Daniel Hale Williams founded the first black‐owned hospital in America, and performed the world's first successful heart surgery, in 1893. Williams was born in 1858 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, the fi h of seven children. A er his father died, his mother, Sara Price Williams, moved the family several mes. Young Daniel started as a shoemaker, but quickly knew he wanted more educa on. He completed secondary school in Wisconsin. At age 20, Williams became an appren ce to a former surgeon general for Wisconsin. Williams studied medicine at Chicago Medical College. Determined that Chicago should have a hospital where both black and white doctors could study and where black nurses could receive training, Williams rallied for a hospital open to all races. A er months of hard work, he opened Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses on May 4, 1891, the country's first interracial hospital and nursing school. Courtesy of PBS.org Ernest Evere Just 1883 ‐ 1941 Born on August 14, 1883, in Charleston, South Carolina, Earnest Evere Just was an African‐
American biologist and educa tor who pioneered many areas on the physiology of develop‐
ment, including fer liza on, experimental parthenogenesis, hydra on, cell division, dehydra‐
on in living cells and ultraviolet carcinogenic radia on effects on cells. Just's legacy of ac‐
complishments followed him long a er his death, on October 27, 1941. Just's first job out of college was as a teacher and researcher at the tradi onally all‐black Howard University. Later, in 1909, he worked in research at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachuse s. Just furthered his educa on by obtaining a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago, where he studied experimental embryology and graduated magna cum laude. Courtesy of Biography.com Zora Neale Hurston 1891 ‐ 1960 Born in Alabama on January 7, 1891, Zora Neale Hurston spent her early adulthood studying at various universi es and collec ng folklore from the South, the Caribbean and La n Amer ica. In 1920, Hurston earned an associate degree from Howard University. She published one of her earliest works in the university's newspaper. A few years later, she moved to New York City's Harlem neighborhood, where she became a fixture in the area's thriving art scene She published her findings in Mules and Men. Hurston was a fixture of the Harlem Renaissance, rubbing shoulders with many of its famous writers. In 1937, she published her masterwork of fic on,Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston died in Florida in 1960. Courtesy of Biography.com Percy Julian 1899 ‐ 1975 A er college, Julian accepted a posi on as a chemistry instructor at Fisk University. He le in 1923 when he received a scholar ship to a end Harvard University to finish his master’s degree, though the university would not allow him to pursue his doctorate. He traveled for several years, teaching at black colleges, before obtaining his Ph.D. at the University of Vienna in Austria in 1931. Desiring to leave academia, Julian applied for jobs at prominent chemical companies, but was repeatedly rejected when hiring managers discovered that he was black. Ul mately, he obtained a posi on at Glidden Company as the lab director. There he invented Aero‐Foam, a product that uses soy protein to put out oil and gas fires and was widely used in World War II, as well as other soybean‐based inven ons. Julian le Glidden in 1953 and established his own la‐
boratory, Julian Laboratories, in 1954. He sold the company in 1961, becoming one of the first black millionaires, before founding Julian Research Ins tute, a nonprofit organiza on that he ran for the rest of his life. He died of liver cancer on April 19, 1975. Courtesy of Biography.com Dr. Charles Drew 1904 ‐ 1950 Charles Richard Drew was born on June 3, 1904, in Washington, D.C. He was an African‐ American physician who developed ways to process and store blood plasma in "blood banks." He directed the blood plasma programs of the United States and Great Britain in World War II, but resigned a er a ruling that the blood of African‐Americans would be segre‐
gated. In 1938, Drew received a Rockefeller Fellowship to study at Columbia University and train at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. There, he con nued his explora on of blood‐related ma ers with John Scudder. Drew developed a method for processing and preserving blood plasma, or blood without cells. Plasma lasts much longer than whole blood, making it possible to be stored or "banked" for longer periods of me. He discovered that the plasma could be dried and then recons tuted when needed. His research served as the basis of his doctorate thesis, "Banked Blood," and he received his doctorate degree in 1940. Drew became the first African‐American to earn this degree from Columbia. Courtesy of Biography.com Vivian Thomas 1910 ‐ 1985 Vivien T. Thomas was a key player in pioneering the anastomosis of the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery. The surgical work he performed with Alfred Blalock paved the way for the successful outcome of the Blalock‐Taussig shunt.In January 1930, Vivien Thomas, a young African‐American who was forced for lack of funds to leave his first year of college, came to work for Blalock in his laboratory. Thomas learned to perform the surgical opera ons and chemical determina ons needed for their experiments, to calculate the results, and to keep precise records; he remained an invaluable associate throughout Blalock's career. Thomas was a major contributor in the development of opera ve techniques. He and Blalock also col‐
laborated on the design of surgical equipment. In 1979, upon his re rement, he became in‐
structor emeritus of surgery. Vivien Thomas's achievements were widely recognized by his colleagues. In 1976, he was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Laws, by the Johns Hop‐
kins University. Courtesy of Medical Archives Henrie a Lacks 1920 ‐ 1951 Henrie a Lacks was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia. Lacks died of cervical can cer on October 4, 1951, at age 31. Cells taken from her body without her knowledge were used to form the HeLa cell line, which has been used extensively in medical research since that me. Lacks's case has sparked legal and ethical debates over the rights of an individual to his or her gene c material and ssue. The cells from Lacks's tumor made their way to the laboratory of researcher Dr. George O o Gey. Gey no ced an unusual quality in the cells. Un‐
like most cells, which survived only a few days, Lacks's cells were far more durable. Gey isolat‐
ed and mul plied a specific cell, crea ng a cell line. He dubbed the resul ng sample HeLa, de‐
rived from the name Henrie a Lacks. The HeLa strain revolu onized medical research. Jonas Salk used the HeLa strain develop the polio vaccine, sparking mass interest in the cells. Scien sts cloned the cells in 1955, as demand grew. Since that me, over ten thou‐
sand patents involving HeLa cells have been registered. Researchers have used the cells to study disease and to test human sensi vity to new products and substances. Courtesy of Biography.com Dr. Samuel Kountz 1930 ‐ 1981 Samuel Kountz grew up in Lexa, Arkansas‐one of the poorest towns in one of the country's poorest states. But, it was here Kountz first felt the tug toward medicine. He went to the hospi‐
tal with an injured friend and, seeing how the doctors could take away people's suffering, he was inspired to become a doctor. Despite the long odds, years later he became the first African American to a end the University Of Arkansas Medical School. His knowledge and dedica on allowed him to make remarkable advances in the area of kidney transplanta on. The cri cal event that elevated Kountz, the first black transplant surgeon, to medical celebrity occurred in 1961. He did the unthinkable‐he performed the first kidney transplant between a recipient and a donor who were not iden cal twins! This successful transplant procedure, from a mother to her sick child, sealed his status as a kidney transplant pioneer. Requests to demonstrate and teach his techniques poured in from around the world and, in 1965, he performed the first‐ever kidney transplant in Egypt. Courtesy of Scienceheroes.com Dr. Jocelyn Elders 1933 Dr. Elders was the first black US Surgeon General in 1993 under the Bill Clinton Administra‐
on. She received a Na onal Ins tutes of Health career development award and served as assistant professor in pediatrics at the University of Arkansas Medical Center from 1967. In 1971 she was promoted to associate professor and in 1976 a professor. As the Surgeon General Dr. Elders was known for controversy due to her outspoken advocacy about health‐
related issues. One of her many controversies toward abor on and her statement, “We really need to get over this love affair with the fetus and start worrying about children”. Controversies similar to these was the cause of her dismissal as a Surgeon General in 1994. Dr. Elders has retried from prac ce and is a professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine and remains ac ve in public health educa on. Courtesy of Biography.com Alice Walker 1944 Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. She worked as a social worker, teacher and lecturer, and took part in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. Walker's career as a writer took flight with the publica on of her third novel,The Color Purple, in 1982. Set in the early 1900s, the novel explores the female African‐American experience through the life and struggles of its narrator, Celie. Celie suffers terrible abuse at the hands of her father, and later, from her husband. The compelling work won Walker both the Pulitzer Prize for Fic on and the Na onal Book Award for Fic on in 1983. Three years later, Walker's story made it to the big screen: Steven Spielberg directed The Color Purple, which starred Whoopi Goldberg as Celie, as well as Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. Courtesy of Biography.com Alexa Canady 1950 Dr. Alexa Canady was born on November 7, 1950, in Lansing, Michigan. While she was in college, a summer program inspired her to pursue a medical career. In 1981, she became the first female African‐American neurosurgeon in the United States. Canady specialized as a pediatric neurosurgeon and served as chief of neurosurgery at the Children's Hospital in Michigan from 1987 to 2001. It was a career path that some advisers discouraged her from pursuing, and she encountered difficul es in obtaining an internship. But Canady refused to give up, and was eventually accepted as a surgical intern at Yale‐New Haven Hos‐
pital. She went there a er gradua ng, cum laude, from medical school in 1975 Courtesy of Biography.com Courtesy of US Na onal Library of Medicine Regina Benjamin 1956 Benjamin is a physician who served has the 18th Surgeon General of the United States in 2009. In 1995, she was elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Associa on, making her both the first physician under age 40 and the first African‐ American woman to be elected. Benjamin was a recipient of the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human rights in 1998. In January 2010, Benjamin released her first document, en tled "The Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Na on." In it she highlighted the alarming trend of overweight and obese Americans, and offered a blueprint for grassroots efforts to make changes that promote the health and wellness of families and communi es. Courtesy of Biography.com Bennet Omalu 1968 Born in Nigeria in 1968, Bennet Omalu graduated from the University of Nigeria's medical school, before con nuing his training in the United States. In 2002, he discovered the presence of a degenera ve disease in the brain of former pro football player Mike Web‐
ster, naming the condi on chronic trauma c encephalopathy (CTE). His efforts to raise awareness of CTE were rebuffed by the NFL, although moun ng evidence eventually forced the league to make concessions. Omalu's work was drama zed in the 2015 film Concussion, with Will Smith portraying the Nigerian‐born doctor. Courtesy of Biography.com