Department of Medicine Celebrates Black History Month
Speaker William Turner (in white coat) with other attendees of the Department of Medicine's Black History Month celebration. From left, Hansali Tavarez, Wilson Quezada, Julia Iyasere, Gladys Bueso, Lilian Oling, Judith Morel-Pointer, William Turner, Mayra Marte-Miraz, Lina Maria Alfonso, and Christopher Irobunda. Photo provided by the VP&S Department of Medicine.
The Department of Medicine celebrated Black History Month on Feb. 13 with food, music, and a talk by William Turner, associate professor of medicine at VP&S.
Turner—who majored in Black Studies in college—spoke about the contributions, challenges, and triumphs of African American physicians in the United States and at Columbia University.
“I had the great fortune and privilege to be raised by an African American father and uncles who were physicians—so I’ve seen the history of medicine through their eyes and the challenges they faced,” Turner said. “And that’s probably the reason why I’m here today and why I have a passion for taking care of patients.”
Turner’s short history of African American pioneers in medicine began with James Durham (born 1762), who is the earliest recorded Black physician in the U.S., and included James McCune Smith (1813-1865), the first Black American to earn a medical degree and the first Black physician to publish articles in U.S. medical journals, and the first African American woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S., Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who published a book of medical advice for women and children in 1883.
Columbia pioneers in medicine in Turner’s talk included David McDonogh (1821-1893), the first Black Columbia-trained doctor in New York, who studied medicine at VP&S in the 1840s but was not awarded a degree until a posthumous ceremony in 2018; and surgeon Kenneth Forde (1933-2019), who was the only Black student in the VP&S Class of 1959 and one of the few Black members of the VP&S faculty for several decades after he joined in 1966.
“African American history is American history,” said Christopher Irobunda, professor of medicine, in introductory remarks. “History is not just the study of the past. It’s important to recognize our people and how important they are to our institutions. We are great in education, research, and patient care.”