Image: Dr. Percy Julian working in a lab at DePauw University. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest.

In our previous post, we were inspired by the MGH CARE Research Center to share a selection of historic events in which African-Americans were taken advantage of in the name of science. While these events are painful to revisit, they are important to acknowledge as they have contributed to the society we live in today.

To follow up, we decided to transform another MGH CARE thread highlighting Black leaders because it is also critical to recognize that, despite continued injustices, there were many who devoted their lives to making the world of medicine a better and more equitable place.

James McCune Smith, MD

James McCune Smith was the first Black American to hold a medical degree, as well as a prominent journalist, author and anti-slavery activist.

Dr. Smith applied to two American colleges but was denied admission because of his race. He ended up being accepted to the University of Glasgow in Scotland where he completed his bachelor’s, master’s and medical degrees in 1837. He later returned to New York City and opened a medical office and pharmacy and became the resident physician at the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

Smith devoted his career to advocating for the end of slavery, refuting racially-based theories and promoting education. He worked alongside Frederick Douglass to establish the National Council of Colored People, was the first African-American to publish studies in peer-reviewed journals, used science and statistics to disprove theories that implied Black people were inferior and was the director of the Colored People’s Educational Movement.

Smith also wrote the introduction to Frederick Douglass’ second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom, and Douglass was said to have cited Dr. Smith as the single most influential person in his life.

Septima Poinsette Clark, MA

Septima Poinsette Clark was an African-American educator and activist who later became known as the “queen mother” of the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1916, she was not permitted to teach in Charleston public schools because of her skin color, so she became a teacher of children and illiterate adults on Johns Island. She went on to study under W.E.B. Du Bois at Atlanta University and later obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Clark went on to work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and helped gather signatures to get the city of Charleston to hire African-American teachers. She later worked on a 1945 class action lawsuit alongside Thurgood Marshall to equalize pay for Black and White teachers in South Carolina.

In 1956 South Carolina passed a law that made it illegal for public employees to belong to civil rights groups. When Clark refused to leave the NAACP she was fired. However, she continued to lead workshops at the Tennessee’s Highlander Folk School, where she taught basic math, literacy, voter registration, and other basic citizenry skills during her school breaks (Rosa Parks attended one of these workshops in 1955). She later created the first citizenship school to promote literacy and political empowerment within the Black community.

Marie Maynard Daly, PhD

Marie M. Daly was the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in chemistry.

Daly’s interest in chemistry was fostered by her father, who pursued a degree in chemistry at Cornell University but was unable to complete it due to the high cost of tuition. She went on to graduate magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Queens College in 1942 and was offered a fellowship to work as a laboratory assistant while pursuing a master’s degree at New York University, which she completed in one year.

Daly enrolled in the PhD program at Columbia University in 1944 where she worked under Mary L. Caldwell, PhD, the first woman instructor at Columbia, studying how chemical compounds in the body affect the heart and digestion. Her research revealed the relationship between high cholesterol and clogged arteries and increased scientists’ understanding of how diet affects the circulatory system.

After completing her PhD in just three years, Daly went on to teach at the Rockefeller Institute, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Throughout her career she was passionate about increasing opportunities in science and medicine for Black women and other minority groups. In 1988, she established a scholarship fund for minority students in honor of her father.

Percy Julian, PhD

Percy Julian was a pioneering chemist most known for his work synthesizing numerous medications from plants.

Growing up in Montgomery, Alabama in the early 1900s, there were no schools that accepted Black students after eighth grade, so when he enrolled at DePauw University in 1916 he was forced to take several foundational classes to make up for the education he missed. Despite this, Julian graduated in 1920 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry first in his class with Phi Beta Kappa honors.

He received his master’s degree in chemistry from Harvard but was denied admission for his PhD. So he traveled abroad to the University of Vienna and earned his PhD in 1931.

Julian later returned to DePauw as a research fellow where he synthesized a treatment for glaucoma that could be made in large quantities from the calabar bean. Dupont offered to hire Julian and his partner for their work, but rescinded their offer when they realized Julian was Black. He eventually found work with Glidden, where he remained for 18 years. By the end of his career Julian had developed a way to synthesize numerous steroids and hormones from plants, including cortisone, hydrocortisone, progesterone and testosterone. He received over 130 patents throughout his career.

Julian experienced and overcame numerous obstacles throughout his life and career, and he remained dedicated to paving the way and improving the conditions for future African-American generations. He joined the fair housing movement in his all-white Oak Park neighborhood after arsonists tried to burn down his house, led a national fundraising campaign for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and mentored and encouraged young Black scientists for the rest of his life.