Queens: SPSON Celebrates Black History Month

Photo: NY1

Around 1716 – Onesimus

Onesimus is an African man enslaved by Cotton Mather, a Puritan minister, who instructed Onesimus to read and write.

Mather asks if Onesimus ever had smallpox. He answers yes, and no. and tells him about a process called variolation practiced in his homeland. Variolation involves taking the pus from one of an infected person's smallpox blisters and rubbing it into an open wound on the arm of someone who is free of the disease. Onesimus states that anyone who is brave enough to participate in the variolation process will never have the disease.

Onesimus is credited with bringing the African inoculation technique to the United States.

At some point in 1721, smallpox breaks out in Boston. Onesimus' variolation technique is used to inoculate the soldiers.

The technique remains the standard smallpox inoculation process until 1796, when the process is replaced with the "vaccination" method .

1783 – James Durham

Durham is born in 1762 into slavery, and buys his freedom from his owner, James Kearsley Jr., a medical doctor.

Durham did not hold a medical degree but gains knowledge about health and wellness from Kearsley, who specializes in sore throat diseases.

Durham learned how to care for patients and mix medicines. His experience as an assistant gives him the same medical apprenticeship that the majority of schooled physicians experience as they move through their medical training programs.

In 1789, Durham treats and saves more yellow fever victims than any other physician. His success rate is: of 64 patients he treated, only 11 were lost.

Durham's medical practice flourishes until the city of New Orleans decides to restrict his practice in 1801 because he has no formal medical degree.

1911 – Solomon Carter Fuller, MD

In 1897, Fuller receives his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and starts an internship at "Westborough Insane Hospital."

In 1904, Alois Alzheimer chooses five of the students at the Royal Psychiatric Hospital, University of Munich, to serve as his assistants while he performs his graduate research. One of these assistants is Fuller.

In 1911, Fuller identifies one of the causes of Alzheimer's disease and publishes his findings. He is widely published and considered a pioneer in Alzheimer's disease research.

In 1912, the American Psychiatric Association awards Solomon Carter Fuller, MD, the title of America's First Black Psychiatrist.

In 1921, Fuller is named Boston University School of Medicine's associate professor of neurology, and from 1928 to 1933 he functions as chair of the neurology department but is never officially named department chair. He retires from BU in 1933.

In 1943, Livingstone College of Rutgers University in New Jersey awards Fuller an honorary degree: Doctor of Science.

1915 – Ernest E. Just, PhD

Biologist and embryologist, Just receives the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Spingarn Medal for his ground-breaking research on the egg fertilization process and cell division.

1927 – William Augustus Hinton, MD

William Augustus Hinton creates a test to diagnose syphilis. Initially, the test is referred to as the Hinton test, but when he improves the test in 1931 with a colleague, J.A.V. Davies, Hinton changes the name to the Davies-Hinton test.

In 1936, Hinton's medical textbook, Syphilis And Its Treatment, becomes the first African American medical textbook ever published.

1940 – Charles R. Drew, ScD ("Father of Blood Banking")

In 1940, Drew  pioneered storage methods for blood plasma, and during WWII, organized the first large-scale blood bank in the United States.

Once the war ended, he started work on a storage program for the blood at the American Red Cross. After learning that the officials planned to segregate the blood according to ethnicity, however, Drew resigned. He then went on to become the chief surgeon at Washington, D.C.'s Freedmen's Hospital (now Howard University Hospital), as well as the first Black examiner for the American Board of Surgery.

1964 – Jane Wright, MD

Wright is an accomplished surgeon and revolutionary cancer researcher.

While working with a team at New York University School of Medicine, Wright develops a way to deliver heavy doses of anticancer medications to tumors located within the spleen, kidneys, and other hard-to-reach places. In 1967, she serves as the head and associate dean of the Cancer Chemotherapy Department at New York Medical College in New York City.

1986 – Marilyn Hughes Gaston, MD

In 1964, when an infant with an infected, swollen hand is admitted Gaston learns that the infant has sickle cell disease, she commits herself to learning more about it and  eventually became a top researcher for this disease.

Gaston becomes the deputy branch chief of the National Institutes of Health's Sickle Cell Disease Branch. Her research shows the effectiveness of the penicillin to prevent sepsis and the benefits of screening newborns for the disease.

1987 – Benjamin S. Carson Sr., MD, Neurosurgeon

In 1987, Carson is a neurosurgeon leading a 70-member surgical team separating a set of Siamese twins who are conjoined at the cranium. The separation is successful, which makes Carson the only neurosurgeon to successfully separate twins who are joined at the back of the head.

In 2016,  President Trump nominates him to serve as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; the appointment is confirmed on March 2, 2017, and he serves through the entire Trump presidency.

1988 – Patricia Era Bath, MD

In 1988, Bath is the first Black female physician to receive a patent for a medical device.

As an ophthalmologist, Bath conducted a study to determine the prevalence of visual impairment and blindness based on race, and finds that the prevalence of blindness is two times higher in African Americans than in Caucasian Americans.

Bath's technique and device, the Laserphaco Probe, are used during cataract surgery.

In 1976 Bath  founds the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness.

2007 – Emmett Chappelle

Chappelle, a WWII veteran, is a NASA inventor and a biochemist. He holds 14 patents in the United States. In 2007, he is inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his bioluminescence work. His research makes it possible to detect bacteria more accurately in water.

Crosby, K. (2021, February 17). Recognizing medical contributions by Africans and Black Americans. Medical News. Retrieved February 3, 2022, from https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/generalprofessionalissues/91243