People, Locations, Episodes

Georgia Rooks Dwelle, Pediatric Physician born

*The birth of Georgia Rooks Dwelle is celebrated on this date in 1884.  She was a Black physician who specialized in obstetrics and pediatrics. Georgia Rooks Dwelle was born in Albany, Georgia, to former slaves Rev. George Henry Dwelle and Eliza (Dickerson) Dwelle. Her father was a founder of the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia […]

John Baxter Taylor, Olympian and Veterinarian born

*John Baxter Taylor Jr. was born on this date in 1884. He was an African American veterinarian and Olympic track star.

The First Black Medical Society in America is Founded

On this date in 1884, The Medico-Chirurgical Society of Washington D.C. was founded. It was the first African American medical society.

Numa P. G. Adams, Doctor, and Educator born

*Numa Adams was born on this date in 1885. He was a Black doctor, educator, and administrator.   Numa Pompilius Garfield Adams was born in Delaplane, Virginia. He received his early education at a country school run by his uncle, Robert Adams. His grandmother, Amanda Adams, was a midwife who assisted Dr. Green in delivering babies. […]

Jean Hamilton Walls, Physicist born

*The birth of Jean Hamilton Walls in 1885 is celebrated on this date. She was an African American physicist and educator.

From Pittsburgh she was the daughter of. Walls graduated from Allegheny High School in 1904 and majored in mathematics and physics at Pitt. She received a master’s degree at Howard University in 1912 and taught at the Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore; the Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina; and the Fort Valley School in Georgia.

Hartford Burrell, Physician born

*Hartford Burwell was born on this date in 1885.  He was a Black doctor.  From Raleigh, North Carolina, Hartford Ranson Burwell attended Hampton Institute, Virginia, and graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh. He received his MD degree from Howard University in 1912. He interned at Freedmen’s Hospital, Washington, DC, and was on the staff from […]

Riley Ransom, Physician born

*Riley Andrew Ransom, a Black physician, was born on this date in 1886 in Columbus, KY. He was the son of Allen and Alice Ransom and a cousin to Bishop Isaac Lane, founder of Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. Ransom initially attended Lane College but soon transferred to Southern Illinois State Normal University in Carbondale, […]

Alice T. Gafford, Nurse, and Artist born

*On this date in 1886, Alice Taylor Gafford was born. She was an African American nurse and artist.

From Los Angeles, she was one of ten children of Benjamin and Alice Armstead Taylor, and the only one who showed an interest in art. She spent twenty-five years in the nursing profession before deciding to pursue her first love, painting. Gafford attended and graduated from the Otis Art Institute, receiving attention from critics when she won second prize for one of her paintings at the Stendahl Gallery on Wilshire Blvd.

The Lone Star State Medical Association is Formed

*The Lone Star State Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association was founded on this date in 1886. This organization of African Americans in the health field came into existence in Galveston, TX. J. H. and L. M. Wilkins, brothers and Galveston doctors, with J. S. Cameron, a San Antonio pharmacist, and twelve men from nine towns […]

Henry Callis, Physician, and Franternity Founder born.

*Henry Callis was born on this date in 1887. He was a Black physician. Henry Arthur Callis was born in Rochester, New York, and attended Cornell University and Rush Medical College. He became a physician and worked as a medical consultant at the Veterans’ Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama. He was a professor of medicine at […]

Edward Chandler, Chemist born

Edward Chandler was born on this date in 1887. He was an African American chemist.

From Ocala, Florida, Edward Marion Augustus Chandler received a Bachelor of Science for Howard University in 1913 and a Master of Science from Clark University in 1914. He earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1917. Dr. Chandler served as a Chemist for the Dicks David & Heller Company from 1917 to 1921. From 1921 to 1924 he worked as a Plant Chemist for Abbott Laboratories. Beginning in 1924, Dr. Chandler was a Consulting Chemist in Lake County, Illinois.

Austin Curtis, Doctor born

*The birth of Dr. Austin Maurice Curtis, Sr. in 1868 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American doctor.

From Raleigh, North Carolina, he was a prominent turn of the century physician and protégé of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. His first internship took place at Chicago’s Provident Hospital, in 1891. He was also the first Black surgeon on staff of Cook County Hospital (a non-segregated hospital) in 1896.

Curtis was a professor of Surgery, Howard University for 25 years and Chief Surgeon, Freedmen’s Hospital from 1898-1938 He died in 1939.

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Franklin McLean, Doctor, and Activist born

*Franklin Chambers McLean was born on this date in 1888. He was an White American doctor and Civil Rights activist.

Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, Physician born

Dorothy Boulding Ferebee was born in 1889. She was an African American physician, administrator, international leader on children, youth, and women.

Samuel Green, Obstetrician and Segregationist born.

*Samuel Green was born on this date in 1889.  He was a white-American obstetrician and segregationist.  Green was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1922.  By the early 1930s, Green had become the Grand Dragon of Georgia.  Starting from the late 1920s, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had a problem with declining membership. In 1939, Imperial Wizard Hiram Wesley […]