:Meharry Medical College

{{Short description|Historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee, US}}

{{Infobox university

|name = Meharry Medical College

|native_name =

|image_size = 200px

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|motto = Worship of God through Service to Mankind

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|established = {{start date and age|1876}}

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|academic_affiliation = ORAU

|type = Private historically black medical school

|religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church{{Cite web |title=Meharry Medical College |url=http://public.gbhem.org/iamscu/search_results.asp?act=search_gen&search_txt=MEHARRY+MEDICAL+COLLEGE&type=schools&submit=GO |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726074913/http://public.gbhem.org/iamscu/search_results.asp?act=search_gen&search_txt=MEHARRY%2BMEDICAL%2BCOLLEGE&type=schools&submit=GO |archive-date=July 26, 2011 |access-date=2007-06-29 |publisher=International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges, and Universities (IAMSCU)}}{{Cite web |title=About Meharry |url=http://www.mmc.edu/about/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121027034051/http://www.mmc.edu/about/index.html |archive-date=2012-10-27 |access-date=2007-06-29 |publisher=Meharry Medical College}}

|endowment = $156.7 million (2020)As of June 30, 2020. {{Cite report |url=https://www.nacubo.org/-/media/Documents/Research/2020-NTSE-Public-Tables--Endowment-Market-Values--FINAL-FEBRUARY-19-2021.ashx |title=U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2020 Endowment Market Value and Change in Endowment Market Value from FY19 to FY20 |date=February 19, 2021 |publisher=National Association of College and University Business Officers and TIAA |access-date=February 20, 2021}}

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|president = James E. K. Hildreth

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|students = 956 (Fall 2021)

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|city = Nashville

|state = Tennessee

|country = United States

|coordinates = {{coord|36.167|-86.807|type:edu|display=inline,title}}

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|former_names = Medical Department of Central Tennessee College

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Meharry Medical College is a private historically black medical school affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, it was the first medical school for African Americans in the South. While the majority of African Americans lived in the South, they were excluded from many public and private racially segregated institutions of higher education, particularly after the end of Reconstruction.

Meharry Medical College was chartered separately in 1915. In the early 21st century, it has become the largest private historically black institution in the United States solely dedicated to educating health care professionals and scientists.{{Cite web |date=2008-05-06 |title=Marian Wright Edelman to speak at Meharry Medical College commencement |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/05/05/daily14.html |website=Nashville Business Journal}} The school has never been segregated.{{Cite book |url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=134480936&site=ehost-live |title=Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2020 |edition=6th |chapter=Meharry Medical College |url-access=subscription |via=EBSCOhost}}

Meharry Medical College includes its School of Medicine, School of Dentistry, a School of Allied Health Professions, School of Graduate Studies and Research, the Harold R. West Basic Sciences Center, and the Metropolitan General Hospital of Nashville-Davidson County. The degrees that Meharry offers include Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.), Master of Science in Public Health (M.S.P.H.), Master of Health Science (M.H.S.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees. Meharry is the second-largest educator of African-American medical doctors and dentists in the United States.{{Cite web |date=2018-12-31 |title=At a Glance: Black and African American Physicians in the Workforce |url=https://www.aamc.org/news/glance-black-and-african-american-physicians-workforce |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803153923/https://news.aamc.org/diversity/article/black-history-month-facts-and-figures/ |archive-date=2019-08-03 |website=AAMC}} It has the highest percentage of African Americans graduating with Ph.Ds in the biomedical sciences in the country.{{Cite journal |date=14 December 2017 |title=The Economic Impact of Meharry Medical College |url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=126752623&site=ehost-live |journal=Tennessee Tribune |volume=28 |issue=50 |pages=1A, 10A |url-access=subscription |via=EBSCOhost}}

Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved is a public health journal owned by and edited at Meharry Medical College. Around 76% of graduates of the school work as doctors treating people in underserved communities. School training emphasizes recognizing health disparities in different populations.

History

File:Afro-American_encyclopaedia,_or,_The_thoughts,_doings,_and_sayings_of_the_race_(electronic_resource)-_embracing_addresses,_lectures,_biographical_sketches,_sermons,_poems,_names_of_universities,_(14577035840).jpg (CTC), with Meharry Medical College inset in top right corner, 1895.]]

Meharry Medical College was one of six medical institutions established between the years of 1876 and 1900 in the state of Tennessee.{{Sfn|Watson|1999|p=38}} These schools were founded after the end of the Civil War when slaves had been freed. Because of their former restrictions, there were as yet few African-American physicians, and many freedmen in need of health care.{{Sfn|Watson|1999|p=26}} Because of segregation, most hospitals would not admit African Americans, and many white physicians often chose not to serve freedmen. During the late 19th century and into the early 20th century, most medical institutions accepted few, if any, African-American students. To combat this shortage of health care and the lack of accessibility to medical education, individuals, such as Samuel Meharry, and organizations, such as the Medical Association of Colored Physicians, Surgeons, Dentists, and Pharmacists (later renamed the National Medical Association), helped to found medical schools specifically for African Americans.{{Cite journal |last=Hansen |first=Axel |date=April 2002 |title=African Americans in Medicine |journal=Journal of the National Medical Association |volume=94 |issue=4 |pages=266–271 |pmc=2594211 |pmid=11991340}}

The college was named for Samuel Meharry, a young Irish American immigrant who first worked as a salt trader on the Kentucky-Tennessee frontier.{{Cite web |last=O'Connor |first=Allison |date=2010-01-11 |title=Meharry Medical College (1876- ) • |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/meharry-medical-college-1876/ |access-date=2020-07-16 |website=Black Past |language=en-US}} After achieving some success, he and four of his brothers later made a major donation to help establish the college.{{Sfn|Watson|1999|p=24}} As a young trader, Meharry had been aided by a family of freedmen, whose names are unknown.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=383}} Meharry reportedly told the formerly enslaved family, "I have no money, but when I can I shall do something for your race."{{Cite web |title=The Salt Wagon Story |url=http://www.mmc.edu/about/salt-wagon-story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510190512/https://www.mmc.edu/about/salt-wagon-story.html |archive-date=2021-05-10 |website=Meharry Medical College}}

Students at Central Tennessee College (CTC) approached the college president about setting up a medical school in 1875.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=383}} The president, John Braden, approached Samuel Meharry to discuss the proposal.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=383}} In 1875, Meharry, together with four of his brothers, donated a total of $15,000 to assist with establishing a medical department at (CTC), a historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee. With the contribution of the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church North, George W. Hubbard and Braden,{{Cite web |title=History of the Tennessee Conference (UMC) |url=https://www.tnumc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/History-of-the-Tennessee-Conference-for-webpage-final.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120142859/https://www.tnumc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/History-of-the-Tennessee-Conference-for-webpage-final.pdf |archive-date=2021-01-20 |website=Tennessee Conference, United Methodist Church}} they opened the Medical College at CTC in 1876 with a starting class of nine students.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=384}} The classes took place in the basement of the Clark Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church.{{Sfn|Poinsett|1976|p=34}} The first regular year of classes began in October 1876 and had eleven students in that group.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=384}} The medical program was initially two years long, but they added an additional year in 1879 and a fourth year to the course of study in 1893.{{Sfn|Poinsett|1976|p=34}}

Hubbard, a physician, served as the founding president of the medical college.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=384}} The first student graduated in 1877. The second class, which had its commencement in 1878, had three graduates.{{Cite news |date=1878-02-22 |title=Commencement Exercises at Central Tennessee College |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55490417/the-tennessean/ |access-date=2020-07-16 |work=The Tennessean |pages=4 |via=Newspapers.com}}

In 1886, the Dental Department was founded, followed by a Pharmacy Department founded in 1889.{{Cite web |date=2018-03-01 |title=Meharry Medical College |url=https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/meharry-medical-college/ |website=Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture}}{{Cite book |title=The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture |publisher=UNC Press Books |year=2012 |editor-last=Thomas Jr, James G. |volume=22: Science and Medicine |editor-last2=Charles Reagan Wilson}} The Dental and Pharmaceutical Building was dedicated on October 20, 1889.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=387}} By 1896, half of all "regularly educated physicians then practicing in the South" had graduated from Meharry.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=385}}

A nurse-training school was also developed during the 1900–1901 school year and the first class had eight students.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=387}} A training hospital, Mercy Hospital, was built during the 1901–1902 school year.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=387}} This hospital was replaced in 1916 and named the George W. Hubbard Hospital.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=387-388}} Meharry Auditorium, with a 1,000 person capacity, was built in 1904.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=387}}

In 1900, CTC changed its name to Walden University.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=387}} In 1915, the medical department faculty of Walden University received a separate charter to operate independently as Meharry Medical College. The college continued to be privately funded.{{Sfn|Watson|1999|p=24}} The Medical College remained in its original buildings, and Walden University moved to another campus in Nashville in 1922.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=392}}

In 1910, Meharry absorbed medical students from Flint Medical College when that school was closed.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=288}} Meharry also graduated a large number of women physicians for the time period, with 39 women having graduated by 1920.{{Cite book |last=Abram |first=Ruth J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ynVbaMsPut8C&q=%22meharry+medical+college%22 |title=Send Us a Lady Physician: Women Doctors in America, 1835-1920 |date=1985 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-30278-3 |pages=109 |language=en}} Its reputation suffered in 1914 when it was dropped to Class B status. Abraham Flexner of the General Education Board (a Rockefeller program) provided advice and funding to rebuild its status. As a result in 1923, Meharry was restored to a "grade-A institution" by the American Medical Association (AMA).{{Sfn|Watson|1999|p=24}} Thomas Neville Bonner, iconoclast Abraham Flexner and a life in learning (2000) pp.188–193.

Since its founding, Meharry Medical College has added several graduate programs in the areas of science, medicine, and public health. In 1938, the School of Graduate Studies and Research was founded. The first master's degree program, a Master of Science in Public Health, was established in 1947. In the 1950s, the nursing school and dental technology school were ended. The department of Psychiatry was established in 1961 by school president, Lloyd Charles Elam, a psychiatrist.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=394}} During the 1960s, Meharry began to focus on fighting health disparities.{{Sfn|Poinsett|1976|p=34}} In 1968, Meharry created the Matthew Walker Health Center to provide health services to the community.{{Sfn|Poinsett|1976|p=36}} Also in 1968, the school added a Ph.D. degree in basic sciences.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, 83 percent of all African American physicians had been trained at Meharry Medical College and Howard University School of Medicine.{{Sfn|Watson|1999|p=22}} In 1970, more than 60 percent of black medical students worked as residents at these two colleges.{{Sfn|Watson|1999|p=160}} In 1972, Meharry started receiving federal distress grants which were given to medical schools with deficits in operating costs and problems with accreditation.{{Sfn|Martin|1986|p=44}} By 1976, the school campus took up space on 65 acres.{{Sfn|Poinsett|1976|p=40}}

In 1981, the accrediting body of the AMA put Meharry on probation because there were not enough patients in the Hubbard Hospital for students and the student to teacher ratio was too high.{{Sfn|Martin|1986|p=44}} In 1983, president Ronald Reagan allowed the school to work with patients in the nearby veterans' hospitals and the Blanchfield Army Community Hospital and the college regained full accreditation.{{Sfn|Martin|1986|p=44}} By 1986, around 46 percent of all black faculty members in medical schools had graduated from Meharry.{{Sfn|Martin|1986|p=50}}

In 1972, a Ph.D. program was implemented. A decade later in 1982, Meharry established an M.D/Ph.D. program. In 2004, Meharry created a Master's of Science in Clinical Investigation program (2004).{{Cite web |title=Quick Facts |url=http://www.mmc.edu/_modules/events/didyouknow2.html |website=Meharry Medical College}}

The Hubbard Hospital, belonging to Meharry Medical College, closed in 1994 and was renovated as the new site for the Metropolitan Nashville General Hospital, opening November 1997.{{Sfn|Watson|1999|p=178}} The year 1994 was also a start for more renovations of campus buildings initiated by campus president, John E. Maupin Jr.{{Cite journal |last=Hefner |first=David |date=July 2001 |title=Breathing New Life into Meharry |url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=4910555&site=ehost-live |journal=Black Issues in Higher Education |volume=18 |issue=11 |pages=28 |url-access=subscription |via=EBSCOhost}} The school was also suffering from a $49 million deficit and morale at the school was low. The Nashville General Hospital's lease money, however, helped bring money into the school and eventually, by June 1995, the finances of the school were stabilized. In 1999, the college partnered with Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

In 2005, Meharry was censured by the American Association of University Professors for not observing generally recognized principles of academic freedom and tenure.{{Cite journal |date=November 2004 |title=Academic Freedom and Tenure: Meharry Medical College {{!}} AAUP |url=https://www.aaup.org/AAUP/programs/academicfreedom/investrep/2004/Meharry.htm |journal=Academe |publisher=American Association of University Professors |access-date=November 18, 2017}}{{Cite news |last=Spragens |first=John |date=July 21, 2005 |title=Labor Pains at Meharry |url=https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/article/13012070/labor-pains-at-meharry |access-date=18 November 2017 |work=Nashville Scene |language=en}}

On November 9, 2017, Meharry, under president James E.K. Hildreth, signed a memorandum of agreement with Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), America's largest for-profit operator of health care facilities. Under the agreement, Meharry's medical students will gain clinical training at HCA's TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center in Nashville.{{Cite news |last=Kacik |first=Alex |date=November 9, 2017 |title=HCA partners with Meharry Medical College to train students |url=http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20171109/NEWS/171109870 |access-date=November 18, 2017 |work=Modern Healthcare |publisher=Crain Communications, Inc. |language=en-us}} Meharry students had previously received clinical training at numerous sites, primarily Nashville General Hospital, which had moved on-campus in the 1990s.{{Cite web |title=Nashville General Hospital |url=http://www.mmc.edu/patientcare/school-of-medicine/nghlanding.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322195104/http://www.mmc.edu/patientcare/school-of-medicine/nghlanding.html |archive-date=March 22, 2018 |access-date=November 18, 2017 |website=Meharry Medical College}} Withdrawal of the alliance with Meharry is thought to threaten the provision of inpatient care at Nashville General Hospital.{{Cite news |last=Stinnett |first=Joel |date=November 9, 2017 |title=HCA strikes student-training deal with Meharry |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2017/11/09/hca-strikes-student-training-deal-with-meharry.html |access-date=November 18, 2017 |work=Nashville Business Journal}} A board member resigned over this surprise decision and announcement.{{Cite news |last=Fletcher |first=Holly |date=November 17, 2017 |title=Nashville General board member resigns, mayor apologizes for surprise hospital announcement |url=http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/industries/health-care/2017/11/17/nashville-general-board-member-resigns-mayor-apologizes-surprise-hospital-announcement/870026001/ |access-date=November 18, 2017 |work=The Tennessean |language=en |agency=USA Today Network}}

In April 2019, then-dean and senior vice president of health affairs Dr. Veronica Mallett secured a partnership with Detroit Medical Center to increase the number of Meharry students able to complete their studies at that hospital.{{Cite web |date=2019-04-05 |title=Meharry Medical College Expands Partnership With Detroit Medical Center |url=https://www.jbhe.com/2019/04/meharry-medical-college-expands-partnership-with-detroit-medical-center/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education}} Meharry students had been accepted at Sinai-Grace Hospital alongside Michigan State and Wayne State university students since July 2018.{{Cite web |last=Rahal |first=Sarah |date=2019-04-01 |title=Deal increases number of Meharry medical students at DMC |url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/04/01/dmc-announces-partnership-meharry-medical-college-tennesee/3320509002/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=The Detroit News |language=en-US}}

In September 2020, philanthropist Michael Bloomberg donated $34 million to help lower student debt at the institution. Bloomberg's gift is the largest in Meharry's history.{{Cite web |title=Bloomberg awards $34 million to Meharry Medical College to pay off student loan debt |url=https://www.wsmv.com/news/davidson_county/bloomberg-awards-34-million-to-meharry-medical-college-to-pay-off-student-loan-debt/article_2c6eb2d6-edde-11ea-96aa-87f2ee2a6c53.html}}

In 2021, Meharry launched Meharry Medical College Ventures to aid in reducing health disparities through forming partnerships with medical facilities across the US. Mallett was the inaugural president and CEO,{{Cite web |date=2021-05-11 |title=Meharry launches venture, taps Mallett as CEO |url=https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/education/meharry-launches-venture-taps-mallett-as-ceo/article_bb3a4b0c-b24f-11eb-8d86-97985d80c064.html |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=Nashville Post |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2021-05-10 |title=Meharry Medical College Ventures Names Dr. Veronica Mallett President and CEO |url=https://www.nashvillemedicalnews.com/article/4128/meharry-medical-college-ventures-names-dr-veronica-mallett-president-and-ceo- |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=Nashville Medical News |language=en}} serving until 2023. She has been succeeded by Reginald Holt.{{Cite web |last=Capps |first=Milt |date=2023-06-28 |title=Meharry Medical College's MMC Ventures names Reginald Holt its CEO |url=https://www.venturenashville.com/meharry-medical-colleges-mmc-ventures-names-reginald-holt-its-ceo-cms-2270 |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=Venture Nashville}}

In March 2022, MacKenzie Scott donated $20 million to Meharry. Scott's gift is one of the largest in Meharry's history.{{Cite web |date=16 March 2022 |title=MacKenzie Scott donates $20 million to Nashville's Meharry Medical College |url=https://www.axios.com/local/nashville/2022/03/16/meharry-20-million-donation-mackenzie-scott}}

In 2024, Meharry received a $175 million gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies to support the school's endowment.

{{Cite web |last=Roush |first=Ty |date=2024-08-06 |title=Michael Bloomberg Donates Record $600 Million To Four Historically Black Medical Schools |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2024/08/06/michael-bloomberg-donates-record-600-million-to-four-historically-black-medical-schools/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240806140933/https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2024/08/06/michael-bloomberg-donates-record-600-million-to-four-historically-black-medical-schools/ |archive-date=2024-08-06 |website=Forbes}}

{{Cite web |date=2024-08-06 |title=Bloomberg Philanthropies Announces Largest-Ever Gift to the Nation's Four Historically Black Medical Schools |url=https://www.bloomberg.org/press/bloomberg-philanthropies-announces-largest-ever-gift-to-the-nations-four-historically-black-medical-schools/ |website=Bloomberg Philanthropies}}

= Presidents =

George W. Hubbard served as Meharry Medical College's first president from its founding in 1876 until his retirement in 1921.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=390}}

The second president of the school was John J. Mullowney, who served from 1921 to 1938.{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=393}} He implemented changes in order to improve Meharry's overall academic rating. Admission requirements were tightened and strictly enforced, a superintendent was installed at the hospital, and the number of faculty, research facilities, and hospital facilities were all expanded. Two years after Mullowney took leadership, Meharry Medical College recovered its ‘A’ rating.

Succeeding Meharry Medical College presidents have been:

Edward Lewis Turner (1938–1944),{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=393}}
M. Don Clawson (1944–1950),{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=393}}
Harold D. West (1952–1966),{{Sfn|Brawley|1974|p=393}}
Lloyd C. Elam (1968–1981),
Richard G. Lester (1981–1982),
David Satcher (1982–1993),
John E. Maupin (1994–2006),
Wayne J. Riley (2006–2013),
Anna Epps (2013–2015),
James E.K. Hildreth (2015–present)

From 1950 to 1952 a committee guided the institution instead of a president. In 1952, Meharry welcomed its first African-American president, Dr. Harold D. West. West made numerous changes, made possible by his successful $20 million fund drive. He added a new wing to Hubbard Hospital, eliminated the nursing and the dental technology programs, and purchased land adjacent to the campus for expansion.

Research

Meharry Medical College spent $96 million on research during fiscal years between 2013 and 2017. The school has a Graduate Studies and Research department.

Research centers include:

Asthma Disparities Center
Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neurosciences
Center for Women's Health Research
Clinical Research Center
Export Center for Health Disparities
Meharry Center for Health Disparities Research in HIV
Sickle Cell Center

BS/MD Program

Twelve universities are in partnership with Meharry to better recruit and prepare their best pre-med students for the academic rigor of Meharry. The ten universities are Alabama A&M University, Albany State University, Alcorn State University, Fisk University, Grambling State University, Hampton University, Jackson State University, Southern University, Tennessee State University, and Virginia Union University.{{Cite web |title=CENTER OF EXCELLENCE |url=https://home.mmc.edu/education/center-of-excellence/ |access-date=2020-07-17 |website=Meharry Medical College |language=en-US}} Beginning Summer 2024, Tuskegee University joined the BS/MD partnership.

Notable alumni

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! Name !! Class year !! Notability

Lucinda Bragg Adams

|1907

|Prior to her medical degree, a noted composer, writer, and editor.{{Cite journal |last=Karpf |first=Juanita |date=1997 |title=The Early Years of African American Music Periodicals, 1886-1922: History, Ideology, Context |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3108447 |journal=International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=143–168 |doi=10.2307/3108447 |issn=0351-5796 |jstor=3108447}}

Daniel Sharpe Malekebu

|1917

|First Malawian to receive a medical degree; Christian missionary and anti-colonial activist

|1937

|President of the Republic of Malawi.{{Cite web |title=Hastings Kamuzu Banda {{!}} president of Malawi |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hastings-Kamuzu-Banda |access-date=2020-07-14 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}

|1971

|Professor of psychiatry.{{Cite web |date=2018-04-12 |title=Carl C. Bell, M.D. '71 Named 2018 President's Circle of Scholars Award Winner |url=https://home.mmc.edu/carl-c-bell-m-d-71-named-2018-presidents-circle-of-scholars-award-winner/ |access-date=2020-07-16 |website=Meharry Medical College |language=en-US}}

Emmett Ethridge Butler

|1934

|Physician and community leader in Gainesville, Georgia, and President, Georgia State Medical Association

|Transplant surgeon, chairman of department, Howard University College of Medicine and founder Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP).{{Cite news |date=6 August 2014 |title=National Minority Donor Awareness Week Honors Howard University Professor Clive O. Callender |url=https://www.afro.com/national-minority-donor-awareness-week-honors-howard-university-professor-clive-o-callender/ |access-date=18 March 2020 |publisher=Washington Afro-American}}

|1975

|First African-American woman doctor to enter the United States Navy.{{Cite journal |date=May 29, 1975 |title=Navy Gets Its First Black Woman in Medical Corps |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HlsDAAAAMBAJ&q=%22donna+p+davis%22+navy&pg=PA24 |journal=Jet |volume=48 |issue=10 |pages=24}}

|2003

|Biochemist and professor at Meharry.{{Cite web |title=Curriculum Vitae for Academic Promotion Oksoon H. Choi |url=https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/allergy/_documents/faculty/Choi%20CV.pdf |access-date=June 24, 2020 |website=hopkinsmedicine.org}}

|1917

|Early Chicago physician and surgeon.{{Cite book |last=Aptheker |first=Bettina |url=https://archive.org/details/womanslegacy00bett/page/100/mode/2up/search/%22thompson+coppin%22?q=%22thompson+coppin%22 |title=Woman's Legacy: Essays on Race, Sex, and Class in American History |publisher=The University of Massachusetts Press |year=1982 |isbn=978-0870233654 |location=Amherst |pages=102 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}

|1882

|Founder of Morris College.{{Cite book |last1=Simmons, William J. |title=Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising |last2=Henry McNeal Turner |publisher=GM Rewell & Company |year=1887 |pages=878–883}}

|First African American physician in Arizona.{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Jae |date=2020-07-03 |title=Dr. Winston Clifton Hackett: First African American Physician in Arizona |url=http://blackthen.com/dr-winston-clifton-hackett-first-african-american-physician-arizona/ |access-date=2020-07-14 |website=Black Then |language=en-US}}

|1905

|Prominent surgeon who is credited for 30,000 operations, was a member of Meharry faculty for 29 years.{{Citation |last=Bernard |first=Louis J. |title=The Meharry Story: Boyd, McMillan, Hale, and Walker |date=1987 |work=A Century of black surgeons: the U.S.A. experience |volume=1 |pages=103–147 |editor-last=Organ |editor-first=Claude H. |editor-last2=Kosiba |editor-first2=Margaret M. |place=Norman |publisher=Transcript Press |isbn=0961738006 |lccn=87402112 |oclc=15607449 }}

|1960

|Leader of the civil rights movement in St. Augustine, Florida that led to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964

| 1994

| Celebrity physician, radio talk show host, chief medical editor for National Broadcasting Company for the Gulf Coast, first Black chief resident of pediatrics at Tulane University, chief executive officer of Community Health TV.{{Cite news |title=Dr. Corey Hébert |url=http://drcoreyhebert.com/ |access-date=2017-03-06 |publisher=drcoreyhebert.com}}

|Tennis Instructor for Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, Physician and Educator.{{Cite web |last=Boyd |first=Herb |date=6 July 2017 |title=Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, the 'godfather' of Black tennis |url=http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2017/jul/06/dr-robert-walter-johnson-godfather-black-tennis/ |access-date=2020-07-14 |website=New York Amsterdam News}}

{{Sortname|John S.|Jackson|John S. Jackson (Florida politician)}}

|First African American surgeon, city commissioner, and mayor of Lakeland, Florida.

|1944

|South Carolina-born dentist who emigrated to Ghana in 1956 and operated a dental practice there for nearly five decades until his retirement in 2002.{{Cite web |last=Dogbevi |first=Emmanuel |date=2010-07-13 |title=Dr Robert Lee passes on |url=https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2010/07/13/dr-robert-lee-passes-on/ |access-date=2020-07-14 |website=Ghana Business News |language=en-US}}

| 1895

| Professor emeritus of physiology, hospital surgeon for Company G, unattached, (colored) of Tennessee State Guard, secretary of Meharry Alumni Association, member of Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.

|1886

|Physician and writer and civil rights activist in Texas and Los Angeles, California.{{Cite book |last=Russel |first=Thaddeus |title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |editor-last=Appiah, Anthony |pages=694–696 |chapter=Majors, Monroe Alpheus |editor-last2=Henry Louis Gates Jr}}

|1943

|Supervising medical officer, St. Elizabeths Hospital.{{Cite news |date=June 6, 1943 |title=71 Will Graduate at Meharry Today |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33011614/eleanor_lewis_makel_1943/ |access-date=June 18, 2019 |work=The Tennessean |page=48 |via=Newspapers.com}}

|1959

|Surgeon General of the United States, President Spelman College.{{Cite web |title=Audrey Manley |url=https://www.spelman.edu/about-us/office-of-the-president/past-presidents/audrey-manley |access-date=2020-07-14 |website=Spelman College}}

|1893

|Medical director of the Afro-American Sons and Daughters Hospital in Yazoo City, Mississippi (1928–1950){{Cite book |title=The Racial Divide in American Medicine: Black Physicians and the Struggle for Justice in Health Care |date=June 30, 2018 |publisher=The University of Mississippi Press |isbn=9781496817686 |editor-last=deShazo |editor-first=Richard D. |edition=First |location=Jackson, Mississippi |pages=xii, 24–26, 176 |lccn=2018006302 |quote=In 1928 he cofounded the Afro-American Sons and Daughters Hospital with local black insurance businessman T.J. Huddleston, who sold individual bricks to raise money for construction. |quote-page=25}}

|Personal physician of Michael Jackson, convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death on June 25, 2009.{{Cite web |title=INSIDE STORY: The Two Sides of Dr. Conrad Murray |url=https://people.com/crime/inside-story-the-two-sides-of-dr-conrad-murray/ |access-date=30 December 2017 |website=People}}

|Dentist and civil rights leader in Shreveport, Louisiana.{{Cite web |date=18 January 2007 |title=Dr. Louis Christopher Pendleton |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=louis-christopher-pendleton&pid=86039170 |access-date=14 July 2020 |website=The Times}}

|First African American physician in St. Petersburg, Florida.{{Cite web |last=Arsenault |first=Kathy |date=January 17, 2001 |title=The Ernest Ayer Ponder Collection |url=http://dspace.nelson.usf.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10806/5221/Ponder_Collection_2001_01.pdf?sequence=1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206065442/http://dspace.nelson.usf.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10806/5221/Ponder_Collection_2001_01.pdf?sequence=1 |archive-date=February 6, 2016 |access-date=2016-09-20 |website=University of South Florida St. Petersburg: Digital Archive |publisher=University of South Florida St. Petersburg}}

|1949

|First African-American woman epidemiologist.{{Cite book |last=Webster |first=Raymond B. |url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericanf0000webs/page/n7/mode/2up/search/%22nancy+c+leftenant%22?q=%22nancy+c+leftenant%22 |title=African American Firsts in Science & Technology |publisher=Gale Group |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-7876-3876-4 |location=Farmington Hills, MI |pages=229 |oclc=41238505 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}

|1899

|Founder and head of the Department of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology at Meharry Medical College.{{Cite journal |last1=Morrison |first1=Sheena M. |last2=Fee |first2=Elizabeth |date=2010 |title=Charles V. Roman: Physician, Writer, Educator, Historian (1864-1934) |journal=American Journal of Public Health |volume=100 |issue=Suppl 1 |pages=S69 |doi=10.2105/AJPH.2009.175562 |issn=0090-0036 |pmc=2837430 |pmid=20147672}}

|1968

|Chair of Meharry Medical college's board; director of public companies; former president of the National Medical Association.{{Cite news |date=January 10, 2017 |title=Meharry board chair to retire after 30 years |url=https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/people/article/20848527/meharry-board-chair-to-retire-after-30-years |access-date=May 22, 2018 |work=Nashville Post}}

William B. Sawyer

|Founder of Miami's first hospital for African Americans

|Dentist and civil rights leader in Shreveport; member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1992 to 1996.{{Cite web |title=Biography |url=http://www.cosimpkins.com/Biography/ |access-date=2020-07-14 |website=C.O. Simpkins, Sr. - Civil Rights Pioneer}}

|Former mayor of Compton, California.{{Cite web |last=Simmonds |first=Yussuf J. |date=2010-06-17 |title=Fathers and Sons Together II |url=https://lasentinel.net/fathers-and-sons-together-ii.html |access-date=2020-07-14 |website=Los Angeles Sentinel |language=en-US}}

|1934

|Former professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery, Meharry.{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=A. R. |year=2003 |title=Managed health care: The Taborian Hospital experience, 1942-1983 |journal=Journal of the National Medical Association |volume=95 |issue=1 |pages=84–89 |pmc=2594372 |pmid=12656454}}

|1893

|First African American woman licensed to practice medicine in Tennessee.{{Sfn|Watson|1999|p=54}}

Josie English Wells

|1904

|First woman to join Meharry's faculty and to open a private practice in Nashville.{{Cite web |last=Benkarski |first=Ashley |date=2022-05-26 |title=Dr. Josie E. Wells: Trailblazing Meharrian Honored With Historical Marker |url=http://tntribune.com/dr-josie-e-wells-trailblazing-meharrian-honored-with-historical-marker/ |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=The Tennessee Tribune |language=en-US}}

|1905

|Founder of Walden Hospital and school of nursing, both serving African Americans, in Chattanooga.{{Cite book |last=Elizabeth H. Oakes |title=Encyclopedia of World Scientists, rev. ed. |publisher=Infobase Publications |year=2007 |location=New York |pages=763–764 |chapter=Wheeler, Emma Rochelle (1882–1957), American Physician}}

|1943

|Founder of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.{{Cite web |title=Dr. Charles H. Wright {{!}} Biographies |url=https://www.elmwoodhistoriccemetery.org/biographies/dr-charles-h-wright/ |access-date=2020-07-16 |website=Elmwood Historic Cemetery}}

Joyce Yerwood

|1933

|Physician and social justice advocate. First female African American physician in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Founded the Yerwood Center, an African American community center in Stamford, Connecticut.{{Cite web |title=Joyce Yerwood |url=https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/joyce-yerwood |access-date=2020-07-29 |website=CT Women’s Hall of Fame |language=en-US}}

References

= Sources =

{{Cite book |last=Brawley |first=James P. |url=https://archive.org/details/twocenturiesofme0000braw/page/n3/mode/2up?q=%22meharry+medical%22 |title=Two Centuries of Methodist Concern: Bondage, Freedom, and Education of Black People |publisher=Vantage Press |year=1974 |isbn=9780533006496 |location=New York |via=Internet Archive}}
{{Cite journal |last=Martin |first=Thad |date=March 1986 |title=Turnaround at Meharry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yNgDAAAAMBAJ&q=meharry%20ebony%20medical&pg=PA42 |journal=Ebony |volume=41 |issue=5 |pages=44–50}}
{{Cite journal |last=Poinsett |first=Alex |date=October 1976 |title=Meharry Medical College Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6d0DAAAAMBAJ&q=meharry%20ebony%20medical&pg=PA31 |journal=Ebony |volume=31 |issue=12 |pages=31–40}}
{{Cite book |last=Watson |first=Wilbur H. |url=https://archive.org/details/againstoddsblack00wats/page/21/mode/2up?q=%22meharry+medical%22 |title=Against the Odds : Blacks in the Profession of Medicine in the United States |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1999 |isbn=0-585-32416-6 |location=New Brunswick, N.J. |oclc=45843812 |via=Internet Archive}}