Highlights in the History of Black Physicians in Maryland

Coming in a little late for Black History Month with this article, but I just found it in the Archives, and thought I'd share it. Unfortunately, the document was un-dated, but I am guessing it was written sometime in the mid-1980s.

Highlights in the History of Black Physicians in Maryland

The history of Maryland’s Black physicians is long and virtually unexplored. One of the earliest reports of a black physician practicing in Maryland dates from 1750. Creating an accurate and complete chronology will be a challenging and consuming process for social and medical historians. The following chronology, while no means complete, attempts to highlight some of the major events in this history.

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century References to Black Physicians

1750 - Henry Game, a slave in Somerset County, was given his freedom and praise in the October 29^th Maryland Gazette, as a successful “Guinea Doctor.”

1818 - Two “men of colour” Marlborough and Gibson, mentioned as practicing medicine without a license on the Eastern Shore.

1832 - Dr. Lewis G. Wells is reputed to have attended the Washington University School of Medicine in Baltimore (now extinct) and to have been Baltimore’s only Black doctor in the ante-bellum period.

1836 - Samuel Ford McGill, the first Liberian colonist to receive a medical education in the United States, attended the Washington University Medical School in Baltimore, until he was dismissed due to pressure from white students. McGill eventually attended Dartmouth where he graduated with a medical degree in 1838. McGill was sent back to Liberia and eventually became its colonial governor.

Black Hospitals in Maryland

1865 - The Dr. G.W. Kennard’s Hospital, a proprietary establishment was formed. Dr. Kennard also established the Kennard Sanitorium during this period.

1894 - The Provident Hospital and Free Dispensary was formed.

1902 - William Bishop, MD, a Black physician, helped found the Annapolis Emergency Hospital (later Anne Arundel General Hospital). The constitution states that it was founded for “white and colored patients.”

Baltimore’s Black Medical School

1900 - The Medical and Surgical School of Christ’s Instution of Baltimore City (also called the Medico-Chirurgical and Theological College of Christ’s Institution) was incorporated. The school was still in existance as late as 1918. Apparently, it graduated very few physicians.

Maryland’s Black Physicians and Organized Medicine

Membership in the State Medical Society

1882 - The state medical society, The Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, admitted its first Black member, Whitfield Winsey, MD

1884 - Reverdy M. Hall was admitted to membership in the Faculty. Dr. Hall was one of the founders of Provident Hospital, one of Baltimore’s earliest Black hospitals.

1885 - The Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland changed its constitution from “gentlemen members” to “persons” due to the number of Black and women who were becoming physicians and wanted to join.

1887 - William Henry Thompson was admitted to membership in the Faculty.

There were no additional Black members admitted to the Faculty until 1949.

1926 - Request made by a white physician on behalf of Dr. D.H.M. Williams for library privileges. Instead of confronting the issues, the Faculty took no action.

1939 - George McDonald, MD, a Black physician and president of a local Black medical society, writes a letter in changing the state’s medical society’s position on allowing library privileges to Black physicians.

1940 - The Faculty votes to allow library privileges to all Black members who are members in good standing of the Black medical society, as well as to allow Black physicians to attend all scientific meetings at the Faculty.

1949 - The Faculty voted to accept Black physicians as full-fledged members. However, it was decided that component (i.e. county) societies could elect Black members at their own discretion.

1973 - Aris T. Allen, MD, a noted civic leader and two-term state legislator, as well as physician, became the first Black officer when he was elected Second Vice-President of the Faculty.

1976 - Dr. Allen was once again elected, this time as Vice-President.

1983 - Dr. Roland T. Smoot, a prominent Black physician was elected as the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty’s first Black president in its [then] 185 years of existence.

Scientific Societies

The Clinical Society of Maryland was organized in 1875 for the advancement of medical science. It existed until 1901 when it merged with the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty.

1883 - Dr. Whitfield Winsey and Dr. Reverdy M. Hall were admitted to the membership in the Clinical Society of Maryland without protest. Both physicians were active participants of the society.

Maryland’s Black Medical Societies

Early in the 1900s, Maryland’s Black physicians formed the Maryland Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association. Local reference materials list a number of other Black medical societies. Whether these were all the same organizations, or separate ones is not clear. Their names were:

• The Maryland Colored Medical Association
• The Maryland State Medical Society (or Association)
• MeDeSo – the Medical Dental Society, and finally,
• The [then] current Black medical society in Baltimore, the Monumental City Medical Society.

Currently (document is un-dated), there are two additional Black medical societies, in addition to the Monumental City Medical Society. They are the W. Montague Cobb Medical Society, organized in the mid-1970s for Black physicians in Howard County; and a statewide Black medical society, which is an affiliate of the National Medical Association, a nationwide Black medical society.