It Was About Time

Doctors of all races and ethnic backgrounds are common these days.

But it wasn't that long ago that no black men or women were allowed to earn a medical degree, according to Duke University Medical Center. In fact, the first black man to earn a medical degree was James McCune Smith from the University of Glasgow in Scotland in 1837. In 1862, Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first black woman to earn a medical degree, from New England Female Medical College in Boston.