John V. DeGrasse Earns Medical Degree from Bowdoin, Among First US-Trained Black Physicians

John V. DeGrasse, born in New York City to an Afro-Caribbean family, graduated from Bowdoin College's medical school in 1849, one of the first Black Americans to earn a medical degree from a US institution. He later became the first Black member of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1854 after a celebrated battle against racial exclusion.