Honoring Black Medical Pioneers in the United States
Feb. 6, 2025, News Staff — Black physicians have improved health care for patients and their families through the United States' history. The AAFP is proud to honor this rich history that adds to the theme of Black History Month 2025: “African Americans and Labor.”
Read our timeline of some of the key Black medical pioneers in history, and be sure to visit the AAFP website as we recognize Black history month and highlight the important work of African American family physicians throughout the country.
First Black Doctor in the United States
1783: James Durham opens a medical practice in New Orleans and becomes the first Black physician in the United States after buying his freedom from slavery. Although he did not have a formal medical degree, Durham successfully treated patients with diphtheria, and saved a high number of patients who experienced yellow fever during an outbreak in 1789.
1837: James McCune Smith, M.D., becomes the first Black American doctor in the United States with a medical degree. Because of segregated admission practices, Smith had to enroll at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Smith was also the first Black physician to establish and operate a pharmacy, and the first Black physician to publish articles in U.S. medical journals.
Famous Black Women Doctors
1864: Rebecca Lee Crumpler, M.D., becomes the first Black woman physician in the United States after earning her degree from the New England Female Medical College in Boston. Nineteen years later, she published Book of Medical Disclosures, a volume of medical advice for women and children.
1988: Patricia Bath, M.D., the first Black person to complete a residency in ophthalmology and a founding member of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, becomes the first Black female physician to receive a medical invention patent after inventing the Laserphaco Probe, a surgical tool that results in less painful and more precise treatment of cataracts.
1990: Marilyn Hughes Gaston, M.D., the author of a groundbreaking study on the treatment of sickle cell disease, becomes the first woman and first Black woman to direct a public health service bureau (the bureau of Primary Health Care in the Department of Health and Human Services), where she focuses on improving access to health care for underserved and minority communities.
1991: Vivian Pinn, M.D., becomes the first woman and first Black woman to serve as director of the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health. She remained with NIH until 2011; during that time, she also established and co-chaired the NIH Committee on Women in Biomedical Careers.
1991: Roselyn Payne Epps, M.D., M.P.H., becomes the first Black woman to serve as president of the American Medical Women’s Association. She also helped establish the AMWA Foundation.
1992: Mae Jemison, M.D., who spent a decade in private practice and then taught as a research physician with the Peace Corps, becomes the first Black woman in space as a mission specialist on the space shuttle Endeavour.
2019: Patrice Harris, M.D., M.A., is sworn in as the first Black woman president of the American Medical Association.
2024: Ala Stanford, M.D., publishes her memoir Take Care of Them Like My Own, expounding on the foundation of the Black Doctors Consortium and her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Black Physician Leaders in Government
1993: Jocelyn Elders, M.D., becomes the first Black person to serve as surgeon general of the United States. During her tenure as surgeon general, she advocated for drug education and distribution of contraception in schools.
1997: Family physician Donna Christian-Christensen, M.D., becomes the first woman physician and first Black woman physician to serve as an elected member of Congress, representing the U.S. Virgin Islands from 1997 to 2015.
1998: Family physician and AAFP member David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., is confirmed as surgeon general. From 1998 to 2001, he also served as assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services, becoming only the second person to hold both positions simultaneously.
2009: Family physician and AAFP member Regina Benjamin, M.D., is unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as surgeon general.
2011: William Coleman Jr., Ph.D., a microbiologist, is appointed as the first permanent scientific director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, and the first Black scientific director in the history of the NIH Intramural Research Program.
2014: Camara Phyllis Jones, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., is elected president of the American Public Health Association.
2020: Marcella Nunez-Smith, M.D., M.H.S., an associate dean for health equity research at Yale School of Medicine, is selected by President Joe Biden as co-chair of the coronavirus task force.
2021: Ada Stewart, M.D. begins the first full year of her term as the first Black woman to serve as president of the AAFP.
Events in Black Medical History
1868: Howard University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., begins its first series of classes on Nov. 9, becoming the first program in the United States to open its doors to medical students of all races, genders and social classes. Clinical instruction was offered for free, and a full course of lectures for the 1868-1869 school year cost $135.
1891: Daniel Hale Williams, M.D., opens the Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses in Chicago, the first Black-owned and first interracial hospital in the United States. Two years later, Williams performed one of the world’s first successful heart surgeries, saving the life of a man who had been stabbed in the chest.
1895: The National Medical Association, the nation’s oldest and largest organization representing Black physicians and health care professionals in the United States, is founded in Atlanta, Ga., with Robert Boyd, M.D., of Nashville appointed as the group’s first president.
1927: William Augustus Hinton, M.D., develops a test for diagnosing syphilis in infected patients. He helped create an improved version of the test four years later, and in 1936 authored Syphilis and Its Treatment, the first clinical medical textbook written by a Black physician. In 1949, he became the first Black person promoted to the title of professor at Harvard Medical School.
1939: Charles Drew, M.D., a surgeon, discovers that blood plasma can be dried and reconstituted when needed, making it an effective substitute for whole blood transfusions. He developed ways to process and preserve plasma in “blood banks,” a procedure that saved the lives of countless American soldiers during World War II and in later conflicts.
1957: The National Medical Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Urban League and Medico-Chirurgical Society of the District of Columbia sponsor the first Imhotep National Conference on Hospital Integration, which plays a vital role in creating and implementing strategies to end segregation in health care.
1986: Herbert Nickens, M.D., is named the first director of the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he leads programs to promote health among racial and ethnic minority populations throughout the country. He later joined the Association of American Medical Colleges, where he became that organization’s first vice president for community and minority programs.
1987: Ben Carson, M.D., then serving as the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, leads a 70-member team in successfully completing the first surgical separation of conjoined twins attached at the back of the head.