People, Locations, Episodes

James Skivring Smith, Doctor, and Politician born

*James Skivring Smith was born on this date in 1825. He was a Black doctor and politician.

Alexander Augusta, Doctor born

*Alexander Thomas Augusta was born on this date in 1825. He was a Black physician and educator.

From Norfolk, Virginia, as a young man he first made his way to Baltimore, Maryland, where he worked as a barber. He began his study of medicine with private tutors and next applied for admission to the University of Pennsylvania. Though access was denied, a Professor William Gibson was impressed with Augusta and brought him under his guidance.

Eliza Bryant, Nursing Home Administrator born

The birth of Eliza Bryant in 1827 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black abolitionist and businesswoman.

She grew up on a plantation in Wayne County North Carolina her parents were Polly Simmons, a slave, and her master. In 1848 her mother was freed and her family moved north, purchasing a home in Cleveland, Ohio with funds from her master. Young Bryant’s education is unknown but she was a pioneer in the movement to welcome and assist Blacks to the Cleveland area, particularly those moving from the southern states through the Great Migration after emancipation.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler, Physician born

*Rebecca Lee Crumpler was born on this date in 1831. She was a Black physician and author.

The Black Hospital in America, a story

On this date we celebrate Black Hospitals. Black hospitals have existed in three broad types: segregated, black-controlled, and demographically determined.

The Georgia Infirmary Opens

*The Georgia Infirmary was chartered on Christmas Eve, 1832.

Located in Savannah, GA this was the first hospital established for blacksin America. A few weeks later, on Jan. 15, 1833, Richard F. Williams, president, presided over the hospital’s first organization meeting. The hospital was established for the “relief and protection of aged and afflicted Negroes.”

Cortland Van Rensselaer Creed , Doctor born

*The birth of Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed is celebrated on this date in 1833. He was a Black Doctor. Attendance at Yale came on the heels of the Connecticut Assembly’s decision to remove references to race in the state’s constitution in 1846. In 1854, he officially became the first black person to register and study […]

Robert Reyburn, Doctor, and Administrator born

*Robert Reyburn was born on this date in 1833. He was a white-American doctor. From Glasgow, Glasgow City, Scotland, the son of James Reyburn and Jane Brown. In 1856, he graduated from the Philadelphia College of Medicine and Surgery. In January 1865, Dr. Robert Reyburn assumed the leadership of Freedmen’s Hospital. The following year Reyburn was appointed […]

William A. Hinton, Microbiologist born

On this date in 1883, William Augustus Hinton was born. He was an African American doctor, professor, and the first Black to publish an academic textbook.

Hinton was from Chicago. He attended the University of Kansas from 1900 to 1902 and then transferred to Harvard University. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1912 and taught bacteriology and immunology there from 1921 to 1946. During this time (1936), he wrote and published “Syphilis and Its Treatment.” He was promoted to clinical professor in 1949, the first Black man to hold such a position.

A Black Man Receives a Patent for a Corn Planter

This date in 1834 marks one of the first patents filed by a Black person in America.

Henry Blair of Montgomery County, MD, received his first patent on October 14, 1834, for his invention of the corn seed planter, which allowed farmers to plant their corn much faster and with much less labor. The machine also helped with weed control. He later received another patent in 1836 for the invention of the cotton planter. The cotton planter was very similar to the seed planter in the way that it was put together.

The New York Colored Orphan Asylum Opens

*The New York Colored Orphan Asylum is celebrated on this date in 1836.  This was a healthcare facility in New York City that existed until 1946. The Colored Orphan Asylum was founded in Manhattan by three Quakers: Anna, Hanna Shotwell, and Mary Lindley Murray. It was one of the first of its kind in the […]

Anderson R. Abbott, Canadian Physician born

*Anderson Ruffin Abbott was born on this date in1837. He was an African Canadian physician and soldier.

From Toronto, Canada, his parents were Wilson R. and Ellen Toyer Abbott, who had emigrated as “free people of color” from Mobile, Alabama, to Toronto in 1835. Anderson Abbott was educated at Toronto Academy where he was an honor student, and Oberlin College, Ohio from 1856 to 1858. In 1861 he graduated in medicine from Trinity College, University of Toronto. He was licensed with the medical board of Upper Canada in 1862. His mentor Was Dr. Alexander T. Augusta.

Benjamin A. Boseman, Doctor and Politician born

*Benjamin A. Boseman was born on this date in 1840. He was a Black physician and politician. Benjamin Antony Boseman Jr. was born in Troy, New York, the son of Benjamin and Annaretta Boseman, the oldest of five children. In the 1860 U.S. Census, he was listed as mulatto. His father was a steward on a […]

Charles B. Purvis, Physician born

*Charles Burleigh Purvis was born on this date in 1842.  He was a Black physician. Purvis was born in Philadelphia, PA.; his parents were white abolitionists Robert Purvis and Harriet Forten Purvis. Charles was the fifth of eight children and worked as a young man. He attended some public schools, but most of his schooling was with the Quakers. […]

Mary Mahoney, Nursing Pioneer born

On this date in 1845, Mary Mahoney was born. She was a nurse, the first Black woman to hold that position in the United States.

Born in the Dorchester section of Boston, she was the oldest of three children. At eighteen, she began working at the New England Hospital for Women and Children as a cook and cleaning woman. Mahoney was always interested in becoming a nurse and in 1878, at the age of 33, she was accepted as a student nurse in the hospital. It was a rigorous program and on August 1, 1879, Mary was one of only four to graduate out of forty-two entries.