Racist medicine: the implications of race in Black medical education, 1910–1950s

This historical study examines the implications of race and racism within the historical context of Black medical education. Using three tenets from critical race theory (CRT), I examine several historical Black newspapers to understand how Black communities were discussing racial disparities and medical education following the implementation of the 1910 Flexner Report. Following this report, only two historically Black medical schools remained open for Black students to gain medical training. It is evident that with Jim Crow laws firmly in place, racial discrimination and systemic oppression continued to inhibit how Black communities navigated their access to Black medical care. This study puts race at the forefront in examining how medical education and training for Black students was developed. It interrogates the ways in which education was viewed as a commodity to be transactional and utilized for white society’s benefit. I examine racism’s impact on teaching, clinical training, and philanthropic funding for Black medical institutions and training hospitals. The study also analyzes how Jim Crow laws operated in a way that unintentionally provided the NAACP with the tools to help Black students gain admission to white medical schools. Finally, using interest convergence and whiteness as property, this study also explores the funding differences between Meharry’s and Howard’s training hospitals. Private and public funding created different levels of control and access to resources for the two schools, but regardless of the funding sources, administrative, structural, and monetary decisions were still dictated by white actors.