Health Sciences at HBCUs
Tuskegee and Florida A&M Universities
HBCUs played a critical role in providing healthcare to African American communities denied access to segregated hospitals. They were also hubs for medical research, training, and advocacy. The innovative medical contributions made by hospitals at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and Florida Agricultural & Mechanical College are preserved in each university’s archive.
HBCUs Led the Black Hospital Movement
John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital operating room
Between 1920 and 1945, Black physicians and nurses created dozens of medical centers for African Americans across the country. HBCUs housed several of these early hospitals. Booker T. Washington made medical advancement and healthcare a top priority at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. Tuskegee developed advanced facilities, taught medical techniques, and founded research projects that became models for other HBCUs.
Florida A&M College (FAMC)’s hospital was a major birthing center for African Americans across Florida. Beloved by the Black community, FAMC’s nurses were known for their professionalism, personal attention, and detail-oriented care. HBCUs made healthcare more accessible to African American communities during the Jim Crow era.
John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital
Tuskegee: An Early Leader in Black Healthcare
Tuskegee Health Clinic, 1927
John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital dedication, 1913
Tuskegee Institute opened its first infirmary in 1891, mostly serving students and faculty. The following year it opened the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital, which was the first Black hospital in Alabama. For decades, Andrew Memorial Hospital was one of the few places African Americans in Alabama and neighboring states could go for care.
Named after abolitionist John A. Andrew, the hospital established standard-setting programs in midwifery and nursing and became a destination for Black physicisans across the nation. Andrew Memorial Hospital was home to many notable African American physicians, including the acclaimed Charles Drew, who attended its annual free clinic that served thousands. The hospital also hosted visiting Black physicians who came to conduct research, study under other physicians, and attend conferences.
Tuskegee ought to be the place where the vital statistics of the colored people can and will be studied with intelligence.
Dr. Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson, 1894
Fighting Polio with the Infantile Paralysis Center
Tuskegee Institute scientist Jeanne M. Walton examining HeLa cells used to develop a polio vaccine
In 1939, the Infantile Paralysis Center was established at the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital at Tuskegee Institute. Formally opened in 1941, the center specialized in treating African American children infected with the polio virus. The center was the only place Black children in Alabama could go for polio treatment.
A highly infectious disease, polio affects the spinal cord and brain. In its severest form, it can lead to paralysis and the loss of limbs. Before the first polio vaccine was introduced in 1955, polio paralyzed thousands of children every year. Tuskegee scientists at the Infantile Paralysis Center played a critical role in the vaccine’s development.
As hospitals were integrated following the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s, Black hospitals struggled to compete for federal funds. John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital closed in 1987.
Dr. Thomas W. Williams with little boy being treated for polio, 1936
Little boy with crutches, 1936
Tuskegee University’s Center for Bioethics
In 1999 Tuskegee University founded its Center for Bioethics to explore moral and ethical concerns in medical care and research, especially for African Americans and other underserved groups. The Center for Bioethics at Tuskegee was a direct response to the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, in which African Americans were denied treatment for syphilis to study the disease’s trajectory. This experiment, and others, created a lasting suspicion of medical care that continues today among the Black community. The Tuskegee Center for Bioethics also publishes the Journal of Healthcare, Science and the Humanities, medical science, race, ethnicity, and social justice.
Florida Agricultural & Mechanical College Hospital
When Florida Agricultural & Mechanical College Hospital opened in 1911, it was the only major healthcare facility for African Americans in Florida. One of the few teaching hospitals serving Black students, FAMC Hospital treated patients, trained nurses and pharmacists, conducted research, and delivered babies. The hospital closed in 1971 after desegregation led to significant losses in funding.
FAMU’s Long Legacy of Nursing
The nursing program at State Normal and Industrial College for Colored Students, later known as Florida A&M College, began in 1904. When FAMU’s hospital opened, nurse Jennie Virginia Hilyer served as its first medical director. FAMU nurses cared for Black patients with tuberculosis and labored to keep the disease from spreading. Today, FAMU has the oldest continuing HBCU baccalaureate nursing program in the United States.
Pharmacies Rely on FAMU Grads
FAMU College of Pharmacy student in lab, ca. 2019
FAMU pharmacy students study clinical care, work with patients at Pharmacy Practice Centers, learn to prescribe medications, and share health information at fairs and community events. FAMU’s College of Pharmacy graduates over 20% of the nation’s Black pharmacists.