Black History Month In Medicine

James McCune Smith (1813-1865) was the first Black man to receive a medical degree. Racist policies prohibited him from receiving one in the U.S., so he went to Scotland to study at the University of Glasgow. He also published groundbreaking articles on abolition and women’s rights.

Ida Gray Nelson Rollings (1866-1953) was the first Black female dentist in the US. An orphan, she worked in a dental office part-time, which inspired her to join the profession. She became the first Black person to practice dentistry in Chicago.

Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931) was the first person to operate successfully on the human heart, at the hospital he founded, which was the first hospital and training school for Black nurses and interns in the US.

Patricia Bath (1942-2019) was an ophthalmologist who dedicated her life to addressing preventable blindness in marginalized communities. She was the first Black female doctor to receive a medical patent for her invention of a laser cataract treatment.