1837

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.

James McCune Smith, denied entry to American medical schools because of race, earned his MD from the University of Glasgow in 1837 and returned to New York City. He became the first Black American physician to hold a medical degree from an accredited institution, opened a pharmacy and practice in New York, and published landmark statistical refutations of pro-slavery pseudoscience.

Quaker philanthropist Richard Humphreys endowed the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, the first Quaker-founded school for Black Americans and a forerunner of Cheyney University, now the oldest HBCU in the US. The Institute taught classical curriculum, sciences, and trades. By the 1850s it produced Black teachers who staffed schools across the mid-Atlantic, with Fanny Jackson Coppin becoming its celebrated principal after the war.

Upon returning from Glasgow with his medical degree, James McCune Smith opened a pharmacy on West Broadway in New York City, believed to be the first pharmacy in the United States owned and operated by a Black American. He used the shop as a community hub, and his medical and statistical writings challenged the pseudo-scientific racism of the era.

Hosea Easton, a Black minister and activist from Connecticut, published A Treatise on the Intellectual Character and Civil and Political Condition of the Colored People of the U. States in 1837, one of the earliest book-length systematic analyses of the origins and mechanisms of American racism by a Black author. It anticipated arguments that would not become mainstream for over a century.

Samuel Cornish relaunched his journalistic mission with The Colored American (originally The Weekly Advocate), published in New York until 1842. The paper championed Black citizenship rights, criticized the American Colonization Society, covered Black education and church news, and addressed issues of moral reform. It became a critical link between Black northern communities during a period of escalating anti-Black violence and legal restrictions.