Flexner Report Closes Five of Seven Black Medical Schools

The 1910 Flexner Report, commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation, established new standards for American medical education that effectively mandated the closure of five of the seven Black medical schools in the country. The report's author, Abraham Flexner, acknowledged that Black doctors were needed to serve the Black community but argued most existing schools were inadequate. Only Meharry Medical College and Howard University Medical School survived. The effect was to dramatically reduce the pipeline of Black physicians for a generation, worsening already severe medical access disparities.