1900's Medicine and Health | Diversity in the Medical Profession: African American Physicians

Pioneering Physicians.

The first black physician in the United States is generally considered to be James Derham, who was born a slave in Philadelphia in 1762. Derham learned medicine under his owner, prominent physician Dr. James Kearsley Jr. At the close of the Revolutionary War Derham was sold to Dr. Robert Dove of New Orleans and continued his apprenticeship. Derham apparently developed a lucrative practice in that city. In 1837 James Smith became the first black American physician to obtain a medical degree, which he received from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Ten years later David Smith became the first black U.S. medical school graduate when he finished at Rush Medical College in Chicago. Until the end of the Civil War most blacks in the United States were slaves. However, several hundred thousand, mostly in the northeastern states, were free and could obtain an education. Thus, several black males obtained medical...