Black History Month 2025

Black History Month 2025 is being celebrated this October (1st-31st) and this year's theme is Standing Firm in Power and Pride. We’re looking at the significant role people have played in medicine. 

There is a long list of names and some we may never hear about, their contributions include life-changing medication and procedures:

Daniel Hale Williams- Performed the first successful open-heart surgery. 

Rebecca Lee Crumpler- First African-American woman to become a medical doctor in the U.S

James McCune Smith- First African-American to earn a medical degree in the U.S

Charles Drew- Revolutionized blood storage techniques 

Henrietta Lacks- African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research.

Marilyn Gaston- Leading researcher on sickle cell disease and the first African-American woman to head a major federal agency when she was appointed Director of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in 1990. 

Solomon Fuller, MD- made significant contributions to the study of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Kizzmekia Corbett: A viral immunologist who led the NIH team that developed the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine

There are many more names we will never get to celebrate due to inequality and anti-blackness, we still have a long way to go. Happy Black History Month. 

Resources: https://medicine.uky.edu/news/black-figures-medical-history-2022-02-09t18-20-25