By Alliance President Terry Gips
As part of our celebration of Black History Month we feel it’s important to share the incredible stories of extraordinary Black leaders who’ve had to overcome massive socioeconomic disparities and systemic racism over two centuries in order to develop some of our most important, life-saving medical technology – from pacemakers and blood transfusions to open-heart surgery, COVID-19 vaccines and neurosurgery on conjoined twins.
Thanks to an excellent article by Breakthrough T1D, we are sharing the stories of six of these amazing medical heroes and sheroes (as Maya Angelou would always say):
Dr. James McCune Smith
Smith was born to enslaved parents in 1813 but had his heart set on becoming a doctor. However, he was denied admission to college because of his race. He was so determined to realize his dream that he pursued his education at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He earned a bachelor’s, master’s, and medical degree by the age of 24.
He then returned to NYC in 1837 and established his own medical office and pharmacy. This made him the first Black doctor with a practice in the US.
Dr. Charles Drew
Drew was born in 1904 and developed blood preservation techniques that led to thousands of lifesaving blood donations. This “father of blood banking” also had a passion for surgery. That led him to be appointed Chair of the Department of Surgery and Chief of Surgery at Freedmen’s Hospital, which is now known as the HBCU Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders
Elders was born in 1933 and became the first person in Arkansas to become board certified in pediatric endocrinology. She was also the 15th and first Black American to become Surgeon General of the US and only the second woman to head the US Public Health Service.
Dr. Ala Stanford
Born in Philadelphia to a teenage mother, Dr. Ala Stanford is the first African American female pediatric surgeon to be trained entirely in the U.S. Recognizing the disproportionate distribution of vaccines at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she left her pediatric surgeon role to address healthcare disparities in Black and Brown communities.
This led to the establishment of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium (BDCC), a collaborative of healthcare professionals who tested more than 30,000 people and administered more than 60,000 vaccinations. Dr. Stanford’s efforts have earned her recognition by Forbes, Fortune Magazine, CNN, and USA Today, to name a few.
Dr. Mae Jemison
Jemison was the first Black American female astronaut to travel into space in 1992. She’s a trained physician dedicated to improving global health. Jemison joined the Peace Corps in 1983 and worked as a medical officer in Africa. She combined her knowledge about satellite telecommunications as an astronaut and her Peace Corps experience to form the Jemison Group. It develops telecommunications systems to eliminate health disparities and improve healthcare delivery in developing countries.
Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers
Rodgers is widely recognized for his contributions to the development of hydroxyurea, the first effective therapy for sickle cell anemia. He is the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. He is also Chief of the institute’s Molecular and Clinical Hematology Branch.