Also American
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.