Primary Sources: African-Americans: Health

"The Belmont Report was written by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. The Commission, created as a result of the National Research Act of 1974, was charged with identifying the basic ethical principles that should underlie the conduct of biomedical and behavioral research involving human subjects and developing guidelines to assure that such research is conducted in accordance with those principles. Informed by monthly discussions that spanned nearly four years and an intensive four days of deliberation in 1976, the Commission published the Belmont Report, which identifies basic ethical principles and guidelines that address ethical issues arising from the conduct of research with human subjects."

"The Black Women Oral History Project collection consists of audiotapes and transcripts of the oral histories of 72 African-American women from across the United States. The interviews discuss family background, marriages, childhood, education and training, significant influences affecting their choice of primary career or activity, professional and voluntary accomplishments, union activities, the ways in which being black and a woman had affected their options and the choices made. For each oral history, the interviewer cooperated with the memoirist to record as full an account of her life as possible."

"The Dr. Matilda A. Evans Collection of documents how she broke boundaries as one of the first African American women physicians to have her own practice. The collection highlights her role as a physician and the great impact she had on the health and welfare of the African American community. The collection is comprised of educational material, business records, photographs, publications, and reference materials collected by and about Evans and her work."

"The official publication of the Association of Colored Physicians of South Carolina, the Hospital Herald was published from 1899-1900. Edited by A.C. McClennan, MD, surgeon in charge of the Colored Hospital and Training School for Nurses, the Hospital Herald was a monthly journal "devoted to hospital work, nurse training, domestic and public hygiene"."

"Images from the History of Medicine (IHM) provides online access to over 70,000 digitized images of the approximate 100,000 items from the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) Prints and Photographs collection."

"The J. Marion Sims Letters, 1858-59 and 1880-1881, consist of four original letters from J. Marion Sims to Gen. Waddy Thompson of Greenville, South Carolina (1858-1859); to O.B. Mayer (1880); and Tom Taylor (1881). His letters refer to patients suffering with fibrous tumors of the uterus and ovarian cysts or tumors. He also inquires of a physician who treated a patient with rectal alimentation. The letters provide detailed accounts of his techniques in attempting to treat the patients."

Digital Collections provides access to the National Library of Medicine's distinctive digital content in the areas of biomedicine, health care and the history of medicine. Our unique digital collections are freely available for download worldwide and in the public domain unless otherwise indicated.

"The creation of National Negro Health Week resulted in the formation of the National Negro Health Movement, which formed to improve the status of black health in America year round. Organizations that participated in this movement included the Annual Tuskegee Negro Conference, the National Medical Association, the National Negro Business League, and the National Negro Insurance Association. The movement, in collaboration with the U. S. Public Health Service, published the “National Negro Health News” quarterly. The publication focused on planning for annual National Negro Health Week activities, as well as reporting on new data and reports related to the status of black health." https://rediscovering-black-history.blogs.archives.gov/2016/03/29/national-negro-health-week-1915-to-1951/

Alvin Crawford, MD, FACS, graduated cum laude from Tennesse State University in 1960, earning degrees in Chemistry and Music. In 1964, he became the first African American to graduate from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine.

Dr. Crawford completed his residency at the U.S. Naval Hospital Chelsea (Boston), and Combined Harvard Orthopaedic Residency Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Crawford became the Director of Orthopaedic Surgery at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in 1977 and remained chief for 29 years. He is one of the nation's foremost authorities on video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, and among his achievements was serving as the first African American president of the Scoliosis Society.

Wendell Bourne was born in 1948 in Cambridge, Massachusetts

He is married and has four children and one grandson with
hemophilia

Mr. Bourne is the director of multicultural education for Kindergarten through 12th grade in the Cambridge school system. He is an African-American whose faith has been an enormous resource in handling life’s challenges. He has severe Factor VIII deficiency and Hepatitis C

The father of modern gynecology, James Marion Sims, and other doctors leave behind an ethically challenged legacy of experimenting on enslaved women.

Records of the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment available at the U.S. National Archives.