Germs don’t discriminate, why should hospitals? Daniel Hale Williams, quite possibly the most prominent black physician of his time, sought to answer this question. Best known for performing the first successful recorded heart surgery, Williams spent his life working for the advancement of African-Americans within the medical field.
Williams was born in 1856 in the town of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. A chance encounter with a barbershop customer inspired him to abandon his initial aspirations to become an attorney and go into medicine instead. In 1878, Williams was granted an apprenticeship with Dr. Henry Palmer, followed by enrollment in Chicago Medical College. Hospitals were not the same today