AchievementJanuary 1837· science
James McCune Smith Earns MD from University of Glasgow
James McCune Smith, born enslaved in New York, earned his MD from the University of Glasgow — denied by American medical schools because of his race. Returning to New York, he became the first Black American to practice medicine with a medical degree in the US, operated a pharmacy in Manhattan, published landmark statistical refutations of scientific racism, and mentored Frederick Douglass and Henry Highland Garnet.