Charles Drew's Influence On African American

Charles Drew was born on June 3, 1904 in Washington, DC. He was an African American surgeon and researcher. He organized America’s first large-scale blood bank. He also trained black physicians at Howard University. His parents were Richard and Nora Drew. He had four siblings. His father worked as a Carpet, linoleum, and soft-tile layers Union which gave them a middle-class life. They were raised with education being the main priority. Charles was raise in an irrational neighborhood. He was raised during the racial segregation era. The Jim Crow laws were still enforced until 1965, which made Drew have many challenges throughout his life and his career. African American were not allowed to seat in front of the bus. In order, to receive an education, they had to have different schools therefore higher education was very limited. They were not allowed to use the same public bathroom. Many restaurants did not serve food to African Americans. African Americans were denied medical care by white doctors if they were admitted to the wrong segregated area. However, due to the segregated era Washington, DC had one of the largest African Americans community which permitted Charles to have a well-rounded education. Charles was not very good with the academics but was an excellent athlete. He played four different sports where he won the James and Walkers medal. He went to Amherst College on 1922 with an Athletic scholarship. He was never interested in the medical field; it was his biology teacher that inspired him. After college, he took a job as the athletic director and as a biology and chemistry professor to save up for medical school. Since, he was African American it was very difficult to have access to medical education. He applied to McGill University where he excelled in the academics and sports. He wanted to continue his training and become a surgeon. However, obtaining residency was complicated because white patients would refuse treatment form black physicians. He became a surgical instructor and chief surgical resident at Freedman’s Hospital. He trained with the department of surgery at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital. He was the first African American to earn a doctorate degree from Columbia University. His experimental research was mainly about how to make blood last enough for a blood bank. In 1939, Drew married Minnie Lenore Robbins. She was a professor at Spelman College in Atlantic, where she taught Home Economics. They had three daughters and a son. On September 1940, he was appointed to direct the Blood for Britain project. Then he was assistant director of a pilot program for the national blood banking system. On 1941 he received his certification for surgery and returned to Howard University to be chief of surgery. He was the first African American to be appointed an examiner for the American Board of Surgery. He devoted part of his career on training and mentoring black students. He was strongly against the prejudice against black physicians. Black physicians were excluded from local medical societies and medical specialty organizations. He stated that his biggest accomplishment in life was teaching African American Surgeons. He gave them the opportunity to practice medicine around the country. He was highly organized, supportive, ad believed in the student’s potential. He made sure that all his students took advantage and …show more content…
He had a car accident on 1950. He suffered several injuries however the doctors were not able to same him on time. He died at the age of 46. Charles Drew made many contributions to science. He was the first African American to contribute so much to the history of medicine. Due to the Jim Crow laws, it was very hard of him to apply medicine to patience. Since, patients normally thought of their doctors as whites. Medical assistant was limited to African American and Drew wanted to change that and he became the first Black surgeon. Drew is the father of the famous blood bank. He found ways to preserve blood for a long period. While on his surgical residency he worked along with John Beattie. Beattie was a bacteriologist who was studying ways to treat shock through transfusion. Transfusion is the process of receiving blood into one’s circulation intravenously. Shock was still a medical condition that was not quite fully